
Class 7^6 ^4- 
Book ,'P9 7 




THUNDER BULL, A CHEYENNE CHIEF 



f7? 



HISTORY OF 



Oklahoma and Indian Territory 



AND 



HOMESEEKEKERS' GUIDE 



BY 



J. L. AND ELLEN PUCKETT 



VINITA, OKLAHOMA 

CHIEFTAIN PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1906 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS I 
TwB Copies Received 

FEB 7 190r 

. Copyrlffht Entry 
CLASS /t XXc.No. 
COPY 



Copyright, 1906, by J. L. and Ellen 
Puckett 



All rights reserved. 



7-^7^7 



CHAPTER I. 
SOME EARLY CHEROKEE HISTORY. 

The first treaty that ever was made be- 
tween the United States and the Cherokee 
Indians was conclnded at Hopewell, on the 
Kiowee, November 22, 1785. 

There came a division among the Cherokees, 
and a chief by the name of Diitcher became 
dissatisfied and decided to go towards the 
sunset about the year 1808. A number of 
French traders came up the Tennessee river 
from New Orleans. They had a large stock 
of goods and undertook to establish a trading 
post. They had a quantity of whisky among 
their stores, and the Indians all got drunk. 
It is said by the old Indians that Dutcher 
took advantage of this opportunity to complete 
his plans, and that he murdered those French- 
men and took their boats and goods. He 
loaded the women and children on the boats, 
with men enough to operate them, while the 
balance of the warriors, numbering, about 200 
men, proceeded overland on ponies, keeping 
in touch with the boats as they went. They 
went to the mouth of the Tennessee, and 
then down to the mouth of the White river. 
Here the horses were ferried across on the 
boats, and the band proceeded to the mouth 
of the Arkansas, up which they went to the 



8 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

place where Dardanelles^ Ark., now stands, arriv- 
ing there about the fall of 1809. They re- 
mained there until the spring of 1810, when 
they got in need of salt. Discovering that 
the water of the Arkansas was salty, they 
decided to lead an expedition up the river 
to the fountain of salt which they conceived 
must exist somewhere up the river. Some- 
where near the mouth of Grand river they 
came in contact with the Osages, and after 
some difficulty they took some of the Osages 
prisoners. 

Dutcher then informed the prisoners that 
if they would take him to where they ob- 
tained their salt he would spare their hves. 
So they lead him up the river about 60 miles 
to the salt springs near what is now known 
as the Cherokee Orphan Asylum. The entire 
country and those Springs were claimed by 
the Osages at that time, and the Osages were 
accustomed to taking pay in ponies from the 
other tribes that were permitted to secure 
salt there. But Dutcher wasn't built that 
way. He didn't believe in giving up ponies 
for salt or anything else. He believed in 
getting all he could, and 'in keeping all he 
could get. So there was trouble over the salt 
springs, but the Cherokees secured all the salt 
they wanted, and then went on back to their 
home. 

But every year they had trouble with the 
Osages in securing their supply of salt. This 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 9 

state of affairs continued until the summer 
of 1817, when Dutcher decided to take posses- 
sion of the Salt Springs himself. He picked 
his army in this way: He built seven fires 
in a row. When they had burned down to 
a bed of coals his warriors were ordered to run 
and turn summersaults through the air over 
and in those fires. Those that were burnt 
had to stay at home, and those who were 
unscathed were permitted to go to war. Out 
of his whole tribe he had about three hun- 
dred warriors, all being good, strong, active 
men. He proceeded to the Springs over the 
usual route, arriving there on about the fourth 
of July of that same year. 1817. He found 
the Osages already at the Springs, under the 
command of their chief, Claremore. The Cher- 
okees had guns, and while the}' were outnumber- 
ed by the Osages, the latter were armed only 
with bows and arrows. After several days 
of hard fighting the Osages fell back to a range 
of timbered hills about twenty miles west, near 
the site of Pry or Creek. Here they made 
another stand, only to be again routed. Falling 
back once more, they went west to the Clare- 
more mound, from which the prosperous little 
city of Claremore takes its name. This hill 
was high, with a little timber on top. . It 
was surrounded on the east by prairie for 
several miles. 

Dutcher believed the Osages were on Dog 
Creek at a little Indian village named Black 



10 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

Dog, about a mile east of where Claremore 
is now. However, after investigation he was 
disappointed, as Black Dog camp had been 
abandoned. After the second day, however^ 
one of the best known scouts the Cherokees 
ever produced. Hominy Jack, brought in word 
that the Osages were camped on a high mound 
about seven miles to the northward. Dutcher 
went thither by night, and his men crept up 
to the top of the hill. The Osages, believing- 
that they were out of all danger, had no 
pickets out at all. The Cherokees laid low 
until the l^reak of day, when, with a single 
warwhoop, they sprang upon the sleeping Osages. 
They first emptied their guns, and then com- 
pleted the work of slaughter with their tom- 
ahaAvks and butcher knives. 

"Run for your life," was the cry of the 
terrified Osages. 80 down the hill they went,^ 
with the Cherokees right at their heels, cutting 
and slashing and screaming like demons. 
Tumbling over one another at the foot of the 
hill, the Osages began to realize their condi- 
tion. They whirled on the Cherokees, and 
a hand to hand battle took place. The Osages, 
being so much bigger than the Cherokees, 
were about to turn the game on them. But 
Dutcher, discovering his mistake, drew his 
men off and ordered them to load and fire 
their g\ms. The Osages soon got under cover 
in the timber along the bank of the Verdigri. 
river, which was about a mile west of the hill- 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 11 

The dead were strewn from the top to the 
foot of the hill, and as late as 1882 many 
bones and other relics of the old battle could 
be found. The chief was killed after whom 
the mound took its name. 

Dutcher took some prisoners and lots of 
ponies. I once had the privilege of knowing 
an old lady who was taken prisoner there 
when she was a girl. She said that her father 
had her on his back and was running down 
the hill, when a Cherokee; striking at him 
with his knife, cut her instead, on the face 
and arm. Her father then put her down 
and ran to save his own life. He tried many 
times to get her back from the Cherokees 
by offering herds of ponies. She was raised 
and educated at a mission near Fort Gibson, 
and married a Cherokee man by the name of 
Petite, who was a prominent man. She never 
returned to her tribe until 1883, when she w^as 
recognized by the scar on her face. She died 
from old age in 1888, leaving two daughters, 
and one son, the son being named Wooster 
Petite, who lives at the present time at Paw- 
huska, and has served as district judge among 
the Osages for several years. 

The fight at Claremore Mound was the 
last trouble the Cherokees and Osages ever 
had. After the fight Dutcher sent a delega- 
tion to the principal chief of the Cherokee 
Nation in the east advising him to exchange 
the old nation for the new territorv which 



12 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

he had just taken charge of. His suggestion 
was carried out in the treat}^ of April 12, 
1834, and all the Cherokees began to collect 
in the new territory. John Ross remained 
chief for 40 years, and died in Washington 
City in 1864. His nephew, Hill Ross, was 
appointed to fill the unexpired term, but was 
defeated for the office of principal ^chief in 
the fall of the same year by Lewis Downing, 
and as W. T. Sherman had been appointed 
to the command of the whole United States 
army, he decided to make some changes in 
Indian affairs. As the original treaty with 
the Cherokees had been broken, it became 
necessary to make a new treaty in 1866. A 
delegation of Cherokees consisting of Houston 
Benge, Smith Christie and others met the United 
States authorities at Washington and an agree- 
ment was made that all freedmen and slaves 
that had been owned by the Cherokee people 
who were then living in the territory should 
return within six months from the date of the 
treaty and should have equal rights with the native 
Cherokees; and also at the same time the Cher- 
okees contracted to sell all the land west of 
the 96th meridian line at 473^ cents per acre 
for the purpose of settling friendly Indians 
and freedmen on. They also sold Cherokee 
and Labette counties, in Kansas, and a strip 
four miles wide the length of the Cherokee 
outlet. This was for years called the neutral 
strip, and extended along the Kansas state 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 13 

line. The Cherokees also sold the northeast 
corner of the Indian Territory, beginning at 
the Missouri line, then running west to the 
Neosho river, then running down the Neosho 
to the mouth of Spring river, then down Grand 
river, which is formed by the Neosho and 
Spring, to the mouth of Cowskin river, then 
up Cowskin river to the Missouri line. This 
body of land was settled by the Senecas, 
Wyandottes, Ottawas, Miamis and Modocs, while 
on the Cherokee outlet the government settled 
the Osages, Otoes, Pawnees and Poncas. 

The Cherokees, however, claimed the re- 
mainder of the Cherokee Strip, as it was not 
all taken up by the - government in settling 
friendly Indians. The government assented to 
the justice of this claim, and in November, 
1892, the United States made a treaty for the 
remainder of the Cherokee Strip for $1.25 
an acre, and agreed to put all intruders out 
of the Cherokee Nation. There were at that 
time several thousand white people living on 
the public domain in the Cherokee Nation, 
contrary to law, claiming to be Cherokees. 
The Cherokee Strip was opened for settlement 
on September 16, 1893. 

Things wore along in this way in the 
Cherokee Nation until the final treaty was made 
and the rolls closed on the 31st day of October, 
1902, and the land office was opened in Vinita 
January 1st., 1903. 



CHAPTER II. 
CREEKS AND SEMINOLES. 

As far back as the Creeks know them- 
selves, they were hving in Alabama and there 
came trouble among them, and one part of 
them went to Florida. These were called 
Seminoles. They made a treaty for the country 
in which they now live about the same time 
the Cherokees moved west. Possibly as late 
as 1836 they, by agreement, divided their 
territory among themselves, the Seminoles taking 
the west part. They made a treat}' in 1866, 
and sold their surplus land in Oklahoma, as 
the' Cherokees had done, at 473^ cents per acre, 
to be used to settle friendly Indians upon, as 
well as freedmen. On their land the govern- 
ment settled the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, 
Sac and Fox, lowas, Pottawatomies, and 
Kickapoos. 

A part of this country was not settled 
by any Indians, and was the original Oklahoma. 
The Creeks claimed that the title reverted 
to them, arid, they let it out for grass pasture 
land to various cattlemen, among others 
Wagoner, Auho & Burnet, Pitckguel Brothers 
and the Miller Brothers, who established the 
famous 101 ranch. In the fall of 1880 Captain 
Payne led a colony of settlers into that country. 




AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 15 

The Creek government contended that the land 
had not been sold to white settlers, but Captain 
Payne and his "so'oners" settled on Deep Fork 
-at the stage line between Welch and the stage 
station on Deer creek, and began to build 
houses and to dig wells. The government 
notified them to get off, but they paid no 
heed to the warnings. Finally soldiers were 
sent to enforce the command. They had 
to tie Captain Payne to get him out of the 
country. 

After this boomers continued to cross the 
hne continuously, and the soldiers had a busy 
time putting them out. After the death 
of Captain Payne Captain Couch took his 
place, guided by one of the most determined 
■cowboys of the west, Phil Johnson, who had 
spent many years in the country after cattle 
and knew it to be a good country. He knew 
also all the good camping places, and being, 
as well as Couch, a determined man, they 
defied the government until finally, in the fall 
of 1888, President Harrison bought the land 
from the Creeks for white settlement, and old 
Oklahoma was opened for settlement on April 
22, 1889. 

The opening of Oklahoma might be called 
the opening wedge. Too miich credit for it 
cannot be given Captain Payne, Captain Couch 
and Phil Johnson. There should be a monu- 
ment of Oklahoma stone built for those three 
men. 



16 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

The opening of Oklahoma threw the sur- 
rounding tribes of Indians into closer touch 
with the white men, and introduced them to 
civilization. The Pottawatomie, Sac and Fox, 
Iowa and Ponca country was opened for settle- 
ment on September 22, 1891. The next re- 
servation to be opened was that of the Chey- 
ennes and Arapahoes, whose country was opened 
for white settlement on November 19, 1892. 
The next was the Kickapoo country, opened 
for settlement on May 23, 1895. 

It will be remembered that all these open- 
ings up to this time had been "on the run." 
The prospective settlers had been lined up 
outside the new country, and at a given signal 
they rushed into the new land, to secure what 
farms or lots they could. The man with the 
fastest horse and the biggest gun and the most 
friends would get the best place. 

The Creek Indians were the first to nia);^'' 
a final treaty with the United States for the 
closing of their tribal government, and were 
also the first to open a land office. The 
allotment of their land was about completed 
by January 1, 1903. 

CHOCTAWS AND CHICK ASA WS. 

There is a tradition that these two tribes 
once inhabited the same country where they 
now live, and that a great tribe of Indians 
from the northwest made war on them so long 
and so fiercelv that thev decided to leave the 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 17 

country. They started east, guided by a dog 
and a magic pole. At night they would plant 
the pole in the ground, and in the morning 
the way the pole would be leaning would be 
the way they would go. They traveled east 
until they came to the Mississippi river. The 
dog was drowned crossing the river, leaving 
them nothing but the pole for a guide. They 
then traveled south for some distance along the 
Mississippi. They remained in the new country 
until they first saw the white man. The 
Chickasaws reheld they are only Choctaws, 
but the word Chickasaw "means "reheld." They 
have never shed the blood of the white man, 
and brag of it. They have adopted the white 
man's ways and his religion. 

The Choctaws and Chickasaws, like the 
other tribes, made a treaty in 1866 and parted 
with those lands of theirs lying in what is 
..ow Oklahoma, on which the government settled 
the Comanches, Kiowas, Apaches. Caddos and 
Wichitas, whose covmtry was opened fo.r settle- 
ment on August 5, 1901. A more sensible 
method of opening was adopted this time, by 
drawing, so that each man had an equal chance, 
and the lucky man won. The lands of the 
Choctaws and Chickasaws were allotted about 
the sam.e as the lands of the other five civilized 
tribes. 

This closes the history of the five civilized 
tribes and. Oklahoma with the exception of 
the big pasture that will be open on the 3rd 



18 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

day of December, 1906. A Cherokee allotment 
is $325 worth of land, and the land is graded 
from 50 cents an acre to $6.50. The Creeks 
have 160 acres each, and have a surplus that 
is to be sold to the highest bidder. The 
Choctaws and Chickasaws have 320 acres each. 
Every one of them who can write his own 
name is allowed to sell all his land but his 
homestead by applying to the Secretary of the 
Interior through the Indian agent. A great 
part of Oklahoma was long counted part of 
Texas, but it was finally decided by the Supreme 
Court of the United States that not the North 
Fork of the Red river, but the Red river 
itself was the dividing line between Oklahoma 
and Texas as far as the east line of the Pan- 
handle country. Beaver county was a tract 
of land which none of the tribes claimed, and 
was for many years called "No Man's Land." 
Fort Supply was established in '67, it was 
the first fort to be established in Oklahoma. 
It was located on Beaver creek in what is 
now Woodward county, Oklahoma, which was 
the first step to be taken to rid that part 
of the plains of buffalo. 




QUANAH PARKER WITH THE TREATY ROLL. CHIEF OF THE COMANCHES. 



CHAPTER III. 

QUANAH PARKER. 

This ct^gter on the hfe of Quanah Parker 
will be begun with the following poem taken 
in substance from Indianology by Herman 
.Lehmann. The old chieftain, Parker, was a 
great lover of music, and the following poem 
fairly illustrates the figure of a dance of which 
the noted chief was especially fond: 

Get yo' little sage hens ready, 

Trot 'em out upon the floor; 
Line up there, you cusses, steady; 

Lively now, one couple more. 

Shorty, shed that ol' sombrero; 

Broncho, douse that cigarette; 
Stop your cussin', Casimero; 

For the ladies now, all set. 

S'lute your ladies, all together; 

Ladies opposite, the same; 
Hit the lumber with your leather; 

Balance all, and swing your dame. 

Bunch the heifers in the middle. 

Circle, stags, and do-se-do; 
Pay attention to the fiddle; 

Swing her till the trotters crack. 



22 HISTORl; OF OKLAHOMA. 

Gents, all right, a heel and toe; 

Swing 'em, kiss 'em, if you kin; 
Go to next, and keep a-goin,' 

Till yo hit your pards agin. 

Gents to center, places round, 

And form a basket balance; 
All whirl yo gals to where yo found 'em, 

Promenade around the hall. 

Balance all yo pards and trot 'em 

Round the circle double quick; 
Grab and kiss 'em while you've got 'em. 

Hold it to 'em if they kick. 

Ladies, left hand to your sonnies; 

Here we go, grand right and left; 

Balance all and swing your honies; 

Pick 'em up and feel their heft. 

Promenade like skeery cattle; 

Balance all and swing your sweets; 
Shake your hocks and make 'em rattle; 

Keno, — promenade to seats. 

— Denver Post. 

Quanah Parker is Chief of the Comanches, 
one of the most powerful tribes of the North 
American Indians. The Comanches are now 
located on a reservation in Oklahoma Territory 
near Fort Sill, the tribe being reduced to only 
a few hundred. They were partially brought 
into submission in 1783 by the Spaniards under 
General Auza, but were soon again on the war 
path, and were ever afterwards known as the 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 23 

fiercest and most cruel in all the western 
country. They continually harassed the frontier 
of Texas until they were finally placed on their 
reservation in the Territory by the United 
States authorities in 1870. 

"Quanah Parker succeeded to the office 
of Chief in 1867 or 1868 on the death of 
Chief Teppakenaki. Quanah is a man of much 
force of character, and has been the actual 
leader of the tribe for many years. He not 
only inherited his strong and prominent traits 
of character from his illustrious sire, old Chief 
Quanah, but there is also a reinforcement of 
Anglo-Saxon blood in his veins, coming from 
the Parker family, which contributes much to 
the robust strength of his manhood. When 
entering civilization, as he frequently does on 
trips to Washington and other eastern cities, 
he dresses in fashionable costume. When with 
the tribe, however he dons their primitive 
garb." — Mrs. M. in Ennis' Review. 

Quanah Parker is now about 54 years old 
(1906). He is the son of Quanah, one of the 
most renowned chiefs of the Comanches, and 
Cynthia Ann Parker, the captive white girl 
who with her brother, John, was captured 
at Parker's Fort in 1836. The capture and 
captivity of the Parker children is one of the 
most pathetic occurrences in Indian annals, 
and forms a prominent page in Texas history. 
The Parker family were early emigrants to 
Texas from Illinois. They settled in what 



24 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

is now Limestone county, near where the town 
of Groesbeck now stands, and in conjunction 
with others in that vicinity erected a fort 
which was designated as Parker's Fort many 
years after. The settlers in the new country 
were unmolested. They had commenced farm- 
ing and stock-raising with considerable success. 
They had established a neighborhood school, 
which Cynthia Ann and John Parker had 
entered. They had organized a Primitive Bap- 
tist church, of which Elder John Parker, an 
uncle of Cynthia Ann, was pastor. 

One summer morning in 1836 the gate of 
the fort had been left open, and several of 
the men had gone out to their farms to labor. 
While the little settlement was in this helpless 
condition three hundred Comanche Indians sud- 
denly dashed into the fort, killing the three 
or four men who had been left to guard the 
fort, including Elder John Parker, Benjamin and 
Silas Parker and Samuel and Robert Frost. 
All the women and children were made captives. 
Among the captives were John and Cynthia 
Ann Parker, aged nine and eleven years respec- 
tively. John and Cynthia were kept among 
the Indians many years. John, upon reaching 
manhood, became an important personage among 
the Comanches on account of his bravery and 
good judgment in battle. In an expedition 
into Mexico, while attacking a town, the Indians 
were so closely pressed that defeat seemed 
imminent. The chief in command was killed, 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 25 

upon which John Parker assumed command 
and led a charge that turned the fortvmes of 
the day, so that the Comanches achieved a 
signal victory. On his return to the Comanche 
country he was at once made a sub-chief, 
and became conspicuous in the councils of the 
tribe. 

Cynthia Ann was taken as a wife by Quanah, 
and became the mother of three children, the 
young Quanah and a brother and sister. In 
the early part of 1860 Colonel G. S. Ross, 
since governor of the state, in command of a 
battalion of Texas Rangers, engage'd a large 
body of hostile Comanches in battle in what 
is now Knox county, and near where stands 
the town of Benjamin. Colonel Ross led a 
charge which routed the superior force of the 
Indians, killing Quanah. The Indians fled to 
the brakes of the ^Yichita river, and in the 
pursuit one of the Rangers overtook a woman 
riding a pony and carrying a small child. He 
presented his revolver to her, when she threw" 
back her robe, held her child in front of her, 
and exclaimed in broken Spanish, "Americano, 
Americano." The Ranger took her prisoner, 
and after returning to the fort she proved 
to be the long-lost Cynthia Ann Parker. Her 
uncle, Hon. Isaac Parker, who was then a 
pioneer legislator, repaired to the fort with a 
few friends, and through an interpreter engaged 
her in conversation, when she at once related 
the heart rending scenes enacted at the fort 



26 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

in 1836. After having endured the hardships 
of savage Hfe for a ciuarter of a century she 
soon passed away under the influence of civihzed 
luxury. Her death occurred in Anderson count}' , 
Texas, in 1865. Her Httle daughter is said 
to have been an extremely bright child, and 
took readily to the ways of civilization. She 
was placed in school by her white relatives^ 
and gave unusual promise of success, but died' 
soon after her mother. 

It is said that Quanah still longed for 
brighter fields and freer hunting. He, after 
the manner of his father, thought it best to 
drive the Avhite man from his hunting ground, 
so he headed a party of picked warriors and 
started out on the range. He went into 
Beaver county and tackled a camping party 
of hunters who were making headquarters in an 
old adobe made after the fashion of a block 
house with port-holes. Parker's men rushed 
up on those hunters a little ways from their 
encampment, shot, speared, lanced, tomahawked 
and otherwise put to death several in a running 
fight. The Indians were too close for the 
hunters to do effective work with their long 
ranged guns, and so Quanah 's men overtook 
them near the house and had a hand to hand 
conflict. Some of the hunters, however, gained 
entrance into the fort as the door of the cabin 
swung open. Just as one hunter was entering 
an arrow pierced his heart, and his soul went 
to that land from whose bourne no traveler 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 27 

returns. His body blocked the door. The 
pale faces tried to pull the body in so the door 
could be closed, and Quanah's men made a 
desperate attempt to enter over the corpse. 
The white men were sending volleys of explosive 
balls at the Indians from the portholes. When 
one of those balls struck anything, even the 
finger, it was like an electric shock. To the 
effect of these balls the hunters owed it that 
they were able at last to pull in the body and 
close the door. The Indians attempted to 
batter it down, and they even seized the port- 
holes and were firing into the adobe hut. The 
hunters, driven to desperation, opened new holes 
and kept up the battle, until Quanah's men, 
seeing they were not gaining anything, scattered 
and stole away, meeting again away ovit on 
the prairie, out of gun-shot range from the 
fort. They were riding along trying to devise 
some means for rescuing their dead, who were 
left on the battlefield. Suddenly and without 
warning or apparent cause one of the warriors 
tumbled from his horse dead. He was examin- 
ed, and it was found that a ball had gone 
through his skull. The wind was l)lowing 
and the buffalo hunter's gun was of such, long 
range that the report was never heard, but the 
effect was c[uite visible. That decided Quanah's 
men. Tliey left their dead, and thenceforth 
steered clear of such adversaries. I don't know 
how many were killed on either side, but there 
must have been scores. This was called the 



'28 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

battle of the adobe wall. To the credit of 
the frontier women, it may be said that there 
were seven white women inside of those walls, 
who ran bullets and reloaded shells while their 
men emptied them at the portholes. Without 
the assistance rendered by the women, the 
whole party probably would have perished. 

Quanah had found many hunters of buffalo 
on this trip. He saw the hunters, the white 
men, had come to stay, and experience had 
convinced him that where one was killed, seven 
came in place of the dead man. He .decided 
therefore that if he did not wish to see the 
white men as thick as the stars of the sky or 
the grass of the plains, he and his men had 
better quit killing them. His father had died 
in battle, his mother, sister and brothers had 
been carried away never again to be seen by 
him. Now he must go on to death like a mad 
man or must take a more sensible view and let 
the dead bury their dead and try to secure 
\some benefits for his people. 

He decided that it was the height of folly 
to fight for a hunting ground with no game on 
it. If the buffalo were not all killed already, 
he knew that they would soon disappear. Con- 
sequently, in the year 1869 he let General 
McKenzie at Fort Sill know his whereabouts, 
and also asked concerning terms, of surrender. 
McKenzie sent one of his scouts to the Coman- 
•ches, and a Mexican who had been raised by 
the Comanches, to make a treaty with them. 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 29^ 

They met away out on the plains and made a 
treaty. Let iis stop and think of that treaty, 
— one white man and a Mexican who had been 
raised by the Comanehes on one side; on the 
other hundreds of warriors who, with white 
men's scalps dangling at their belts, had been 
dancing their war dance until they were tired,, 
under the leadership of a young man. But 
this young man, Quanah Parker, must somehow 
have inspired respect and honor, which these 
Indians recognized, and which was plain to 
General McKenzie also. For the general, though 
a brave man, and had no fear whatever, would 
not send a lone man into a place where he 
thought there was great danger, and this man 
whom he sent was one of his favorite scouts. 
Though I have tried to get the name of this 
scout I have so far failed, and know only his 
Indian name, which means nothing in this case. 
So away out there on the plains they made 
their treaty, Now there were some older chiefs,. 
jealous of Parker, who wanted to secure con- 
trol, so they slipped across into Texas, and 
murdered and stole and committed depredations 
innumerable, among their other crimes being^ 
the burning of a government train. The leaders 
of these unruly Comanehes were White Wolf and 
Sutaner. They were finally arrested and taken 
to Texas, where they were sentenced to the 
penitentiary for life. After having been kept 
in the penitentiary for three months, however,, 
they were released and permitted to return to- 



30 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

the reservation, in order that they might tell 
Iheir people what would become of them if 
they did not obey the law. After having 
visited their people White Wolf and Sutaner 
had to go back to the penitentiary for the 
balance of their lives. White Wolf escaped 
by killing himself before it was time to go 
back, while Sutaner committed suicide in the 
penitentiary after his return. 

Quanah moved his band to the reservation 
and then went to work, riding night and day, 
trying to gather up the small bands and persuade 
them to move on to the reservation. This was 
a hard task many times, for while they were 
small bands they had taken a solemn oath to 
•stick together and to fight the white man. 
Always, however, when Quanah would get to 
them he would out-talk them and bring them in. 

To illustrate his power, I will insert here 
the experience of a German boy who was 
•captured on the frontier of Texas by the Apaches. 
He was named Herman Lehmann, and was only 
11 years old when captured. He lived eight 
years among the Apaches and Comanches. He 
Tias since written a book, "Indianology," printed 
by the Johnson Brothers' Printing company, 
San Antonio, Texas, in 1899. I have met 
some of his old friends among the Comanches, 
and one of them, Ora A. Woodman of Lawton 
Okla., had a copy of the book. I shall have 
occasion to si3eak further of Woodman later. 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 31 

Lehmann says, in his book: "Ranches and 
forts were being estabHshed everywhere, and 
we had no show. The soldiers were thick, 
and game was getting scarce. The soldiers 
did not want to kill us, so they got Quanah 
Parker to look for us. We had confidence 
in Quanah and smoked with him, talked over 
the situation, and at first refused to go. Final- 
ly he out-talked us, and we began to move 
towards Fort Sill. We had divided, and there 
were only fifteen of us together where Quanah 
had found us. 

"One night we saw an unusual number of 
signs of soldiers and became frightened. Quanah 
advised us to stay, and all at once we were 
surrounded by soldiers. Quanah raised a white 
flag and met the soldiers in consultation. They 
then withdrew and we went on with Quanah 
without further trouble. We met many soldiers 
and white people, but Quanah always managed 
things satisfactorily, and we were allowed to 
travel on. 

"We were very near Fort Sill when the 
famous fifteen all came together and took again 
an oath never to give ourselves up or submit 
to the domineering attitude of the whites. We 
were just ready to quit this country and seek 
more freedom elsewhere, but Quanah came 
around and again out-talked us, so we went on 
reluctantly. That night our chief. High Shorty, 
had a bad dream. The next morning he called 
all his men together, invited Quanah in, and 



32 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA. 

told US his dream. He told Qiianah that he 
was doing wrong by breaking his oath, and 
that he ought not to do it. He said, 'Quanah, 
I am not afraid of you, but I dread the white 
men.' 

"Quanah offered him protection and a good 
time, but still our chief was not convinced. 
He trusted Quanah and believed he would do 
his part, but he did not think Quanah could 
manage the soldiers. High Shorty would not 
move that day. He said to Quanah, 'You 
are one of us, but where did we lose our 
warriors? Did we lose them in battle? No; we 
weakened and submitted to the whites, and 
they transported many warriors far away from 
their wives and loved ones. Shall we give 
up and be severed from all that is near and 
dear to us? You know how our comrades 
have been imprisoned and punished.' 

"Quanah- said: 'I have ridden on the 
black horse train and seen white people by the 
thousands and thousands and thousands, and 
it would be the height of folly for 3'ou and 
fourteen others to try to whip them. And 
besides, you know how hard it is to hide from 
them, for they have dogs that would trail you 
up. You are too near kin to me for me to 
let the soldiers hurt you or any of your men, 
so come on and don't be killed.' 

"He came, but against his will. We 
started on, and Quanah sent scouts to notify 
the soldiers of our approach. We met white 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 33 

people everywhere, but Qiianah could speak a 
little English, and, being a half-breed, he made 
it all right. We were within fifteen miles of 
Fort Sill, and I saw a cloud of dust and heard 
the soldiers coming. I was riding a black 
mare, and a pretty swift animal when properly 
ridden. I turned and rode for life back towards 
the Wichita mountains. Quanah followed me 
and ran me for three or four miles before he 
caught me. The soldiers surrounded my com- 
rades, disarmed them, and carried them to the 
guard house and imprisoned them. Heavy 
balls of lead were bound around their ankles, 
and they were made to wear the ball and 
chain for many days. 

"Quanah took me with him to his camp 
and I staid with him. The Indians who had 
been my companions were made to grade the 
roads all around the post and then made to 
do farm work, and promised these farms w'hen 
they learned how to cultivate them. 

"What did they care for farms? The poor 
Indians began to pine away, and some died 
of broken heart, but still I staid with Quanah 
and would not work. I hunted a great deal, 
and kept his horse in fine shape, but I did 
not like to see my comrades so badly treated. 
After we had been there about two weeks two 
Indians had to stand guard to watch some cattle. 
Some of the cattle got away. The next day 
these boys were punished; they had to chop 
wood. They planned to get away. One of 



34 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

the Indians asked White Horse for a chew of 
tobacco. He set his gun down and reached 
in his pocket for the tobacco, and the other 
Indian knocked him in the head with his ax. 
The two Indians took his gun and ammunition 
and ran away. This was early in the morning. 
About 500 soldiers and I don't know how many 
dogs w'ere sent to catch these Indians, but they 
made good their escape, and were never heard 
of any more. 

"One evening Quanah and I had just come 
from a hunt. I was riding along singing an 
Indian song. I was sitting sideways. Some- 
body opened fire on me. It was dark. I 
fell off and moved forward c^uickly and low. 
They shot right where I fell. I raised up and 
emptied my six-shooter at the cow^ards. I had 
a 45 caliber Colt's. In a few seconds I heard 
somebody groaning. I loaded my pistol, jumped 
up and ran towards Quanah's camp. I saw 
a big black stump right in front of me. I 
was on the war path and afraid of everything. 
I shot twice at the stump and ran by. I 
reported to Quanah what .had happened and 
he called up his men and five were missing. 
We scattered out and soon found them carrying 
a wounded Indian. They had all kinds of 
excuses; they said that they had just wanted 
to scare me. Quanah threatened to report 
the matter to the soldiers. Some cowardly 
Apaches had hired these Indians to kill me. 
They had an Apache horse, and that is what 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 35 

gave them away. . We rounded them up and 
they acknowledged the whole scheme. 

"In a few weeks we went out on a buffalo 
hunt and staid two weeks. I came home sick. 
I almost died. I had to give the doctor the 
best horse I had and a number of buffalo robes. 
I was so weak that I could not raise my head. 
The doctor boiled a lot of herbs and kept 
me wrapped in poultices. Besides he gave me 
some kind of tea and nursed me carefully mitil 
I recovered. 

"One day just after my convalescence 
Quanah wanted me to go to town with him. 
We went into the post and the soldiers sur- 
rounded me and called me Charley Ross. I 
went by that sobriquet for a year. They 
wanted to keep me. Quanah would talk to 
the general and then to me. He told me 
about my mother and folks still alive. I told 
him no, that the Indians were still my people 
and I would not go with the whites. We 
talked a long time, and Quanah persuaded me 
to stay, and I got pretty mad at Quanah and 
told him that he was no man at all, to bring 
me there when he knew those soldiers would 
try to keep me. 

"He said that he did not know it, and 
besides he often went into Texas to see his 
people, and always had a pretty good time. 
I got up and told him that if he was getting 
tired of me I was of him too, so I would 
leave him. He and the soldiers carried me 



36 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

down to a creek nearby to talk to an old man 
and Comanche interpreter by the name of Jones. 
About the same dialogue ensued with him as 
I had just had with Quanah. After we had 
talked for some time, and I still would not 
consent to go, he said that they would have 
to take me anyhow. I drew my bow on 
him, and you ought to have seen him crawling 
for a table hard by. Quanah stopped me and 
said that he would see that they did not take 
me, for he was going back to his tepee with 
me. I turned and was going to kill Jones 
anyhow, but he was gone. I never got another 
chance at Jones, or he w^ould have been a 
goner. 

"I went home with Quanah and we talked 
a great deal. He persuaded me to give up. 
I went back to the post and staid one day. 
They were good to me and offered me sugar, 
fruits and many nice things, but I wasn't 
satisfied. 80 I sent for Quanah, but I was 
angry at him and would not go home with 
him. They put me across the creek with my 
former comrades, and I lay around, hunted, 
and had a pretty good time. The soldiers 
furnished us rations and ammunition, bvit we 
yearned for freedom. One Indian proposed 
to me that we steal a girl apiece and run 
away. I went to my old girl, that had nursed 
me when her father shot me for courting her, 
and she consented to go. We were to meet 
that night. My chum stole another man's 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 37 

wife, two good horses and other necessities and 
made good his escape. My girl was true to 
her promise, stole all the goods she could carry, 
and waited for me until nearly daylight. I 
started and was nearly to where my girl was 
when the soldiers, who had been secretly watch- 
ing me, made a drive for me. I ran off a 
bluff, fell into the river, came near freezing, 
and was actually driven back to camp, where 
so many soldiers watched me that I had no 
chance for escape. 

"For a few weeks hunting and the monotony 
of camp life was all I knew, but one [warm 
day I was in swimming with two Indian girls 
and I caught one and hugged her and was 
trying to kiss her when the other girl came 
up. They double-teamed on me and ducked 
me until I was nearly drowned, but I caught 
them off by themselves one at a time and 
made them sorry that they ever immersed me, 
and don't you forget it. 

"In a few weeks General McKenzie saw 
mamma down near Fredericksburg and told 
her about me. From the description she did 
not think I was her boy. Adolph Korn, whom 
I had met once while a Comanche party was 
visiting his Apache master, had been at home 
for several years. Fisher had come about 
three months before, and I was the only white 
boy left. 

"General McKenzie came back and they 
began to persuade me to come home. Quanah 



38 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

told me how to find the way back ' to his 
camp, and promised to take care of J my horses 
while I was gone. He said that he would 
be a brother to me, and insisted that if I 
did not have any folks I should come back 
and live with him. I left all my Indian 
property with Quanah and in company with 
five soldiers and a driver I started. We went 
twenty miles the first day. Four days' travel- 
ing brought us to a country where there w'as 
game. They would give me a gun and ammuni- 
tion and say, 'Here, Charley Ross, fresh meat.' 
I would go out and bring in an antelope. 
"The fifth day a soldier and I went hunting 
and got out of sight of the wagon. We killed 
several prairie dogs and then sat down on a 
hill. I kept singing and making Indian songs. 
He patted me on the head and motioned to 
go. I got up reluctantly and went with him. 
I was planning all the time to kill him and 
run away, but where would I go? That bother- 
ed me. for all of our old hunting ground was 
taken up. The soldier watched me pretty 
closely, but finally I got the drop on him and 
made him drop his gun. He didn't much 
want to do it, but then he saw that I meant 
business, so down went his gun and up went 
his hands. I said, 'Home,' and pointed towards 
the camp. He trotted off that way, but 
would stop and look at me. I leveled my gun 
on him again. Before he got to camp he was 
in full trot. I had to lug both those heavy 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 39 

guns into camp. I had a notion to shoot 
the soldier, but then I did not know where to 
go. He preceded me into camp probably five 
minutes, as I was about a hundred and fifty 
yards behind him. When I got there the 
soldiers motioned me to come on into the 
camp, and then they motioned at the old soldier 
and laughed. He didn't like it at all. He 
would cuss and mutter, but they made fun 
of him all the way. 

"They kept my gun cleaned, and always 
roasted my meat. I would not eat anj^thing 
cooked in bacon, or even in the same pan, 
but they petted and humored me, or I would 
have killed some of them and run away. I 
would get up and stir around early and play 
pranks on the soldiers. One morning I grabbed 
up a blanket and gave the Comanche war 
whoop, and I want you to know those fellows 
scattered! The driver made the mules break 
loose. They came back and laughed at me 
after they found out what the trouble was: 
'Charley Ross no good; too much like Indian.' 

"We came on to Fort Griffin, and all these 
soldiers got on a whiz; stole my money and 
all went to the lockup. A new outfit brought 
me on, and I was allowed to kill game and 
do pretty much as I pleased, but they kept an 
eye on me all the time. We came on to a 
big hole of water, and there these soldiers 
caught big bull frogs and fried them in lard. 
I quit camp. That was in violation of a sacred 



40 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

treaty we had made years ago with the Car- 
anchiias, and therefore against our rehgion. 
I w^ould not eat with those soldiers any more. 
I cut off meat and roasted it on an iron. 
Frogs and swine, — both water or mud animals, — - 
too much for me. 

"The second day I jumped off the wagon 
and shot an antelope. One of the soldiers 
brought the little animal in, and as he went 
to get on the wagon while it was in motion 
his foot slipped, the mules jumped, and he fell 
and the wagon ran over his leg, breaking it. 
After this we traveled slowly, camped often, 
and killed much game. Gradually, however, 
we neared the home of my childhood. We 
passed through Fort Mason and learned that our 
destination was not far. At Loyal Valley the 
people began to meet us. We drove up to 
a place and stopped. The captain said, 'Charley 
Ross, get out and kiss your mother.' 

"But I sat still in the wagon. I thought 
mother was killed and all of my folks. The 
Indians had told me this, and nearly killed 
me because mother shot one of them. When 
mother came out I knew her, although I could 
not speak, and then there were so many people 
that I was afraid to try. They did not know 
me until they had examined my arm and found 
a scar ihat was made there while I was quite 
a boy." 

It will be remembered that Texas had 
refused to make a treaty with the Comanches, 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 41 

but by force had driven them from the land 
of their inheritance. For this cause many 
hundreds of white famihes, men, women and 
children, had come to a horrible death, while 
on the other hand many a brave Comanche 
with his wife and children had gone to the 
happy hunting ground. Even the old chief, 
Quanah's father, had died in battle, and his 
mother, sisters and brothers had been carried 
off into captivity, never more to enjoy the 
blessing of Quanah's companionship or to drink 
of the free air on which an Indian lives. What 
would have been the outcome if instead of 
doing evil to the Indian the white man had 
done good we can only conjecture. 

In this instance we see an Indian chief 
in blanket and leggins persuading a white boy 
and doing all in his power to return him to 
his mother's breast, among these same Texas 
people. Was it because he loved the white 
people, or because he loved to do right? 

I have been among the Indians for more 
than twenty-five years, and have been married 
to three Indian women, and I never heard tell 
■of such a case, not even among the most civ- 
ilized Indians. In all my experience among 
the Indians, if a chief wanted his people to 
think well of him he would shoot the white 
man, certainly extend him no favors. Not 
so in this case. This man took his people 
fresh from the war trail, in blankets, and 
accustomed to living only in tents and tepees, 



42 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

and ill a little over a quarter of a century 
got them to wear citizens' clothing, and persuad- 
ed many of them to live in houses and even 
to farm a little. He is the best-known chief 
of all the western tribes of Indians. He has 
two daughters, both of whom have married 
white men. one of them being Mrs. Emmett 
Cox. ^Ir. Cox owns a good barn and lots 
of cattle, and is interested in banking circles. 
He lives in Ijawton, Okla. The other son-in-law,. 
J. T. Birdsanger, ' lives in Dallas, Texas, where 
he is freight agent for the Texas & Pacific. 
Quanah doesn't believe in having his picture 
taken, and it is only when it is requested by 
his Washington City friends that he will consent 
to pose' before the camera. He is a particular 
friend of President Roosevelt. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RELIGION AND TRADITIONS OF THE 
CHEYENNES. 

There is a tradition among the Cheyennes 
that in the beginning they hved upon the 
upper Missouri or in some part of Canada, 
existing much like animals. What they could 
catch they ate raw, so the tradition says, and 
as to clothing, the less they had, the better. 
They had no love nor respect for one another, 
and when a woman gave birth to a child she 
would take care of it until it was large enough 
to catch what it needed to live on, and then 
turn it adrift and care no more for it. 

They were living somewhere in a valley, 
and they don't know whether it was a cloud 
burst or a tidal wave or what, but all at once 
the whole face of the earth became covered 
with water, and all but a few of the tribe w^ere 
drowned. Those that were saved were scattered 
widely, and wandered around without seeing 
one another for several days. Finally the 
medicine man found a woman. Now both he 
and the woman had felt so lonely that when 
they saw one another they ran and embraced 
one another, and, clasped in one another's 
arms, created a human love, so that ever after 
they lived as man and wife. 



46 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

And they found the tracks of others of 
their tribe, and tracked them up, and when they 
found them they embraced them in their arms. 
And so they kept on till they had C|uite a 
number, and they went to living together in 
pairs, and loved one another, and ever after 
they loved their children. 

And, after this advancement, they found 
some young panthers an'd raised them as pets, 
and when a panther would catch a deer he 
would eat what he wanted and leave some for 
his masters, and he would also leave the hide 
for them, and they used the hides for making 
clothes. And when the panther wasn't hungry 
he would catch small game and carry it to 
the tribe. 

And they had precious stones with which 
they cut wood. And they cut for themselves 
clubs, and learned how to throw them. And 
there was a medicine man who had a medicine 
club, and when he threw it at anything he 
could kill it. And there came another tribe 
from the east that they supposed to be others 
who had escaped from the flood the same as 
they had, but they made war on the Cheyennes. 
But so great was the power of this medicine 
man and his medicine club that no one could 
stand before him, and, though the battle lasted 
several days, the Cheyennes came out victors, 
and drove the enemy from the land. 

There was a certain season of the year 
when it was very hard to get anything to 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 47 

eat, which must have been in the long winter. 
And there came a time when tliey were near 
starvation. They had hunted, but could find 
nothing. There was one young man who had 
gone a long way from the camp, and was 
standing on a high hill. And he saw something 
a long ways off that looked white. Going 
closer, he saw that the whole prairie was covered 
with skunks. So he went back to camp and 
got the others and they surrounded the skunks 
and killed them all. And they took them 
home and ate them, and they lasted until 
the bitter season of the year had past. 

This same young man was considered a 
prophet, and was the first man to invent fire. 
This he did by taking one stick and putting 
one end on a log. Then he put sand and 
dry grass around the stick. Then, holding 
the other end of the stick up, and whirling 
it between his hands, the sand and the wood 
set the grass afire. 

After the hard year, game M'as more abun- 
dant for a season. Then came a hard time 
again, when they had hunted but could find 
nothing, and were about to be forced into 
cannibalism, and were casting lots by setting 
two sticks in the ground and rolling a ball 
between the sticks. Now there came a man 
and looked on, and he was dressed differently 
from any man that they had ever seen. He 
had a fine head-piece on his head, and there 
was paint on his face, and his clothing was 



48 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

more beautiful than any they had ever seen. 
But while he stood looking on there came an- 
other man dressed in exactly the same wa}^;^ 
an,d stood in an opposite direction and looked on. 

The camp was by a big spring, and the 
man that first came said to the other man, "Why 
are you mocking me? You are dressed just 
as I am." 

But the other man said, "I am not mocking 
you. A person down in the spring told me to 
dress this way." 

"Well," said he, "there was a person down 
in the spring who told me to dress this way,, 
too." 

"Well," said one of the Cheyennes, who 
had heard what they said, "let's go down and 
see that person in the spring." 

So they went and dived into the spring,, 
and when they came up they found that they 
were in a big room. And there was an old 
lady in there who was the grandmother of all 
of them, and she was glad to see them. Then 
she built a fire and cooked them both' meat and 
corn and put it in a big wooden bowl. And 
when they had finished eating the bowl was 
just as full as it was before. 

"Now," said she, when they had eaten, 
"I heard my people were starving outside, 
and you must take them something to eat,, 
but before you go I must teach you how 
you must do." 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 49 

Then she picked up a handful of corn 
and said, "This is corn." It was all colors. 
"You must go to some rich bottom land and 
dig up the dirt and plant the corn. And 
it will grow and you must take care of it, 
and you will always have something to eat." 

Then she told them to look to the east, 
and they looked to the east and saw great 
fields of corn. Then she told them to look 
to the north, and the}'^ looked to the north, 
and the hills and the plains were covered with 
buffalo. Then she told them to look to the 
south, and they looked to the south, and they 
could see great herds of ponies. Then she 
told them to look to the west, and they looked 
to the west, and they could see great armies. 

Then said she, "Which one of these will 
you choose?" 

And they said, "Give us the buffalo." 

And- she said she would turn the buffalo 
over to them. Then she told them that by 
the paint of their faces and by their head-dress 
she would know them, and those that would 
not wear the paint, were ashamed of her 
and she would not protect them. 80, when 
they got to where they were starving, she 
would come back again. From this incident 
came the ghost dance and the paint. 

"Now," said she, "you must go and feed 

my people." So each one took a handful of 

corn and a handful of meat and went out. 

And when they came to the people they called 
4 



50 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

for the big wooden bowls, and they put in one 
corn, and in the other the meat, and when 
they put them down the bowls were full. Then 
came the warriors and ate, and when they had 
finished there was as much as before they 
had begun. Then came the old men and 
women, and they ate, and when they had 
finished, there was still as much as before they 
had eaten. Then came the children, and when 
they had eaten, and had had all they wanted, 
the food disappeared. 

And yet the people were all in doubt, 
saying, "Must we believe these men?" 80 
there came out of the spring a big fine buffalo 
heifer. She came close up to them, then 
turned around and disappeared into the spring. 
Then they said, "Now we believe." So they 
put paint on their faces, and shouted aloud, 
and danced all night. And when the morning 
came the whole face of the earth was covered 
with buffalo. So they went out and surrounded 
a herd and caught them with their hands, and 
with their clubs they killed them. These were 
the first buffalo they had seen or heard tell of. 

And they began raising corn, also, so when 
the winter had come and the buffalo had gone 
farther south, they put their corn in a cave 
and followed the buffalo. And. while they 
were gone, some of the tribe came and stole 
all the corn. When they came back, therefore, 
and found all their corn that they had depended 
on gone, and nothing left for them to eat, 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 51 

they went south. They found more buffalo, 
and they went still farther south, until, in Old 
Mexico somewhere, they found a tribe that 
had many ponies. But they had nothing with 
which they could buy ponies, and they could 
not make war on these other Indians, for they 
could ride away from them, and they had 
ropes made of raw-hide. 

So the Cheyennes went by night and stole 
some ponies, and kept on until they had stolen 
enough for all their warriors. And so they 
never tried to raise any ponies. They ran 
them so hard after buffalo that they never 
could raise any colts, and when they needed 
new ponies they simply went back and stole 
them. But the Mexican- tribe grew very tired 
of this stealing, and made war on the Chey- 
ennes, and drove them back to the Black Hills, 
where, after this, they remained a great deal 
of their time, until the white man came. 

These old Indians are big, stout men, and 
the best ropers I ever saw. In times of peace 
they are good, clever, sociable Indians, and 
would fight a white man in any way he cared 
to fight, and then shake hands and forget their 
wars. But there are very few of the old ones 
living nowadays, and the younger ones that 
have been raised as prisoners of war are more 
sullen. They believe that all kinds of meat is 
good to eat. There is no difference to them. 
They will eat a dead pony just as quickly as they 
will a steer that thev have butchered. It 



52 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

makes no difference to them what has been the 
cause of death of a cow or hog or pon}^; they 
will eat it just as c|uickly as if they themselves 
had killed it. They believe that human flesh 
is forbidden, but that anything else in the shape 
of meat is good to eat. 

They believe that the devil is an evil spirit, 
and that he uses a person's appetite to destroy 
him with, — such as tobacco and whisky and 
coffee and fine clothing, — and indeed anything 
that a person can exist without is the devil's 
agent. They say before they knew the white 
man they knew nothing of such things, and 
that then they were perfectly happy. They 
say they had clothes that satisfied them just 
as well as the clothes they have nowadays. 
Now, too, they know how to use tobacco and 
coffee, and as thev are out of these articles 
about half the time they are unable to be happy, 
for they have come to love these agents of 
the devil. They believe that sin came into 
the world first through man's appetite. They 
believe in obeying literally the command of the 
Savior when he said, "Take no thought of the 
morrow; Avhat ye shall eat, or w'hat ye shall 
drink, or w^ierewithal shall ye be clothed," for 
they will eat the last bite on the place and 
then lie down and go to sleep just as con- 
tentedly as if they had a store. 

You can't make any sort of a trade with 
an Indian when he is full. You must catch 
him when he is hungry, and then you can make 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 53 

any kind of a trade with him that you want. 
When an Indian decides to sell a pony he will 
call about him his wife and children and all the 
neighbors, and they will reach a decision as to 
which one shall be sold. And then that pony 
and no other will be sold, no matter if no more 
than a third of what he is worth is realized. 
And you might just as well talk to the wind 
as to try to buy a pony which the council has 
not decided should be sold. 

A number of the younger members of the 
tribe have been educated, and they make good 
clerks and soldiers, and are able to engage in 
almost any kind of business, competing on even 
terms with the younger class of other tribes 
which have been under government protection 
and tutelage for a hundred and fifty years. This 
ought to be sufficient to convince any one that 
it is all in the waj^ one is raised. 

The winter quarters of the Cheyennes are 
generally along some water course on the edge 
of the prairie and handy to timber. They put 
posts in the ground around a square large 
enough for one of their tents or tepees. A pole 
is then fastened at the top of the posts and 
another at the bottom. Next a ditch is dug 
around the entire enclosure. Then they take 
big sunflower weeds or small willows, put one 
end in the ground and fasten a pole on the 
outside all around, leaving a place for a door. 
The tepee is then erected inside the enclosure. 



54 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

The accompanying picture shows an Indian 
village at Colony, Oklahoma. 

From one to two dozen families live in a 
village. The children all play together. In 
case of trouble between the children the mothers 
usually settle it between themselves, and if they 
fail the attention of the band chief who pre- 
sides over the village is called to the matter 
and his decision is final. 

The women, while in their tepees, generally 
spend their time doing bead w^ork or making 
shoes, as shown in the accompanying picture of 
a group of Cheyenne and Arapajioe women. 




JOHN SEGAR 



CHAPTER V. 
JOHN SEGAR. 

The subject of this sketch was born and 
raised in Ohio. After he had married he came 
west as others have done before him and since, 
to find wider fields of action. As I have been 
rehably informed, he was a young man of 
considerable wealth. About the 3'ear 1876 he 
stopped at Fort Reno, and accepted a position 
as principal of a government school at Dar- 
lington. Darlington was located on the north 
side of the North Canadian opposite Fort Reno, 
and was the agency for the Cheyennes and Ara- 
pahoes. He adapted himself quickly to the 
ways of the Indians, and was soon wrapped 
in their unbounded confidence. 

His school was filled with Cheyenne and 
Arapahoe children, and he soon gained their 
-confidence, and, ' through ' them, the confidence 
of the older ones. He did this by being kind, 
patient and truthful. If you want an Indian 
to think well of you you must always tell 
him the truth, for if he catches you in a false- 
hood you can never be a great man in that 
Indian's eye, no matter how much money you 
may have or how big a position you may have 
with the government. He will alwa^^s after, 
wards regard you as a ver}- common man- 



58 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

Segar understood this, and never made a promise 
unless he could fulfil it. 

Soon he became a big man among the 
Indians. He worked always for their good 
and for the good of the government. The 
Indians believed that he would always tell 
them the truth, and to this day they have 
never had their confidence shaken. He got 
along very well with the Arapahoe children 
until about the j'ear 1878, when a bunch of 
Cheyennes were brought in off the plains. The 
soldiers were to take about thirty of the worst 
ones of the warriors to Florida and had them 
at the government blacksmith shop riveting 
handcuffs on them. Suddenly one young war- 
rior broke and ran. The soldiers, wanting to 
stop him, and yet not wishing to hurt him^ 
began shooting over his head. The balls went 
into the camp of the other Cheyennes who were 
to be left at home, and they, thinking that the 
soldiers were making an assault on them, became 
terrified and a panic followed. 

They broke for a sand hill where they had 
already hidden their guns and ammunition. 
This hill had a lake on two sides, so they had 
but two sides to guard. They scraped holes- 
in the sand with their fingers, and were com- 
pletely protected when hidden in them. The 
soldiers first tried to persuade them ■ to come 
down, but they refused. Then they tried to 
force them, and this likewise proved a failure. 
The main part of the army had to stay in the 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 59 

fort to control the main body of the Chey- 
ennes, who were on the south side of the river. 
There were two companies that were given the 
entire task of subduing the insurgents. One 
of the companies was composed of white soldiers^ 
the other of negroes. 

They played on the Indians with artillery 
and Gatling guns for a time, and then gave 
orders to charge. Up the hill went the white 
company, but the colored soldiers stood in their 
tracks, with the exception of one man. The 
lieutenant of the company was an Irishman. 
When he had gone half way up the hill he 
looked around • and discovered that there was 
but one man following him, and that the rest 
of the company were standing at the foot of the 

hill. "D you," said the lieutenant, "don't 

3^ou know better than to come up here all 
alone?" 

The white company was repulsed with heavy 
loss, so the soldiers decided to wait until the 
next day, when reinforcements would arrive. 
So they guarded the two sides of the hill^ 
believing that the lake was sufficient to hold the 
Indians on the other two sides. That night 
excitement ran high. All kinds of rumors were 
afloat. It was said that the great band of 
Cheyennes were about to break away from 
around the fort and massacre the agency people^ 
who were apparently unprotected. 

Segar sent for the chief of the Arapahoes,. 
Left Hand, and laid before him the condition 



60 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

of affairs. After studying the matter, Left 
Hand assured liim that as long as he kept the 
Arapahoe children inside the school there would 
be no danger. "The Cheyennes will not make 
war on the Arapahoes," said Left Hand. 

With this asstirance Segar fastened the doors 
securely and awaited results. When morning 
had come it was learned that the Cheyennes on 
the hill had waded the lake, had secured ponies, 
had gone back after all their people, and, taking 
them with them, had made good their escape. 
Some of the escaping Indians rode the ponies, 
carrying the babies and smaller children, while 
the women and larger girls, hanging to the mane 
and tail of the ponies, had managed to keep up 
with the riders, and all had got away to the 
plains together. 

Just as Segar had secured the confidence 
of the Arapahoe children, so he did that of the 
Cheyennes as they were placed in school, and 
he never betrayed this confidence. It became 
necessary about this time for the government to 
establish a mail rotite from Fort Reno to Fort 
Elustee, a hundred and fifty miles west. The 
contract was first let to a white man at Fort 
Elustee, but though he made several attempts 
he never did get the mail through on time, as 
there was no road, and the South Canadian 
and Washita rivers both had to be crossed. He 
lost his way so often in the brakes of the 
South Canadian, winding about helplessly, that he 
became disgusted and. qtiit. 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 61 

It was then decided that no white man 
could carry that mail, and it was apparently 
hopeless to attempt to persuade the Indians to 
take the contract. The authorities, however, 
learning of the confidence that the Indians had 
in Segar, went to him and proposed to give 
him the contract, and that he should release 
as many Indians as were necessary to carry the 
mail. Segar went to the Indians who were 
being held as prisoners of war, and asked them 
if, in case he should get them released, they 
would carry the mail. 

"We will/' they answered, "if you will 
protect us." 

"I will protect you,'' said Segar, "and so 
will the government protect you. as long as you 
carry the mail right." 

So the contract was made. Each Indian 
was to carry the mail 25 miles, and was to be 
paid $25 per month. Camps were estabhshed 
about 25 miles apart. An Indian would carry 
the mail west one day to the next camp, where 
he would meet the mail coming east and carr}^ 
it back the next. In this way the mail route 
was established, and the mail went through on 
time. The Indians drew their rations, and 
received their wages as mail carriers in addition. 

In 1880 it became necessary to divide the 
Indians into districts and scatter them out over 
the country. Washita, Roger Mills and Custer 
counties were segregated as the western colony, 
which was named Segar colony, with head- 



62 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

quarters on Cache creek, where the government 
estabhshed large schools and the other necessary 
buildings for the agency. A large farm was 
put into cultivation, to teach the young Indians 
how to farm. A small town has since grown 
lip there, called Colony, Oklahoma, which is one 
of the most beautiful places in the new state. 

Segar set about to teach the Indians how- 
to work. The first crop of wheat he raised 
he threshed under the feet of his horses. For 
the next crop the government bought a little 
tread mill as a thresher. One Indian carried 
the wheat to the machine, w'hile he himself cat 
the bands and fed the wheat to the machine. 
One Indian measured up the wheat and helped 
his wife stack the straw. This Avas the first 
farming ever done in Washita county. About 
nine years of this sort of life was put in- by 
Segar out in the wilds, alone among the Indians, 
contending with outlaws and renegades from all 
parts of the country, attending to the govern- 
ment's affairs and looking after the best interests 
of the Indians. 

Finally, on April 22, 1889, the Cheyenne 
country was allotted and Segar had white neigh- 
bors. He has continued ever since in the serv- 
ice of the government, always taking the hardest 
task for himself. His last position is that of 
farm agent, which is enough w-ork for two men 
his duty being to lease the Indians' lands and 
to see that the lessees comply with all the terms 
of their contracts. He must also see to it that 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 63 

every able-bodied Indian farms some land, and 
must prevent the Indians from giving away the 
wood on their land. In other words, he has 
to be a father to the whole tribe, and look 
after their general interests. 

To illustrate this more forcibly, I will men- 
tion a single case that I happened to witness. 
I was working for a cattleman at one time in 
this same country on the Washita river. He 
wanted to lease all the land in the country for 
pasture at his own price, and when he could 
not do so he tore his clothes and pulled his 
hair, saying that Segar was an old fool; that 
he could be a rich man if he wanted to, but 
instead of that he was a poor man and always 
would be. One day a bunch of my employer's 
cattle broke out and went into an Indian's 
corn field, but before they had done much 
damage some boys happened along and drove 
them back into the pasture. The Indian found 
out about it, told me, and I went and fixed 
the fence. Then, examining the corn, I found 
that it had not been damaged any. The 
Indian, however, wanted damages. This my 
employer refused to pay. The Indian then got 
some more Indians to go with him to the 
agent's, fifteen miles away, who detailed Segar 
to examine the corn. Segar found only ten 
stalks that had been damaged, and he fixed 
the damages at two and a half cents. A few 
days after this the Indian came around, wanting 
to be friends again. 



64 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

This is only one case in a thousand. No 
doubt it is true that Segar could have been a 
rich man, yet he was worth $10 when he began 
his great work to every $1 now. If the 
government would only pay him ten' cents every 
time he had fed an Indian he would have all 
the money he needed. I have been informep 
that he is getting out a book himself, telling 
about his thirty years' experiences. Those 
interested in this sort of book will probably 
find no better history than will be contained in 
his volume, when it is published. His present 
address is, John Segar, Colony, Oklahoma. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE. 

It is cheaper to lease land than to own 
land. It will be remembered that of these 
lands those in Kiowa, Comanche, Caddo, Washita, 
Roger Mills, Custer, Blaine, Dewey and Day 
counties all belonged to the different tribes of 
Indians, and the best lands were allotted to 
them, 160 acres for each individual. Along the 
rivers and creeks, and wherever there was 
timber, these allotments were taken. They have 
never failed to make good crops of corn. The 
upland makes good cotton, wheat and oats. 

There is but a small per cent of this land 
in cultivation, but it can be leased under five 
year contracts, the lessee being required to put 
up the necessary buildings, fence the land, and 
pay from $50 to $65 per year in two pay- 
ments, one on the first of January and the other 
on the first of July. If the place has timber, 
you can cut enough of it for fence-posts and 
whatever improvements are needed on the place, 
and you can also cut what wood you need for 
household purposes. 

This is cheaper than owning land, paying 
taxes and buying wood. In this part of 
Oklahoma when an Indian dies his allotment 
is put up for sale through the Indian agent 
and Interior Department, and extra fine bottom 

5 



66 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

land will often sell for from $1200 to $2000 for 
a quarter section. There is room for thousands 
of families up and down these Oklahoma water 
courses. 

In Oklahoma all contracts made with the 
Indians are made through the Indian agent of 
the respective tribes, while in Indian Territory 
the contracts are made directly with the Indians, 
for everything, excepting the sale of lands. In 
this case application must be made to the 
Indian agent at the Union Agency, Muskogee, 
and on his approval the application is sent to 
the Secretary of thp Interior, and the person 
buying the land receives his deed from the 
Interior Department. This is generally an eas}^ 
process when the Indian is not a fullblood 
and when the price paid for the land is about 
the actual valuation. 

Beginning at the Kansas line in the Cherokee 
country the land varies from $15 to $50 per acre, 
while down through the Osage and Cherokee line, 
where are the great oil fields, the land runs even 
higher. This is on the west side of Grand 
river down to the Creek line, while on the east 
side along the line of Arkansas and west of 
Grand river agricultural land varies from $10 
to $20 per acre. This is a timbered country, 
with flint rock or limestone land, with small 
prairies scattered about among the hills. The 
rougher land, which grows good orchards, veg- 
etables and corn, sells for as low as $2.50 per 
acre. This is a well-watered countrv, very 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 67 

healthy, thinly settled at the present time, and 
with considerable game, a few deer and turkeys, 
lots of foxes and squirrels. There are lots of 
hickory nuts and huckleberries, while it is the 
home of the diamond rattlesnake and the ground 
hog. There are many charming streams filled 
with fine fish. My advice would be, however, 
especially to white settlers, to stay away from 
the river and creek bottoms. Colored people 
stand the malaria much better than white 
people. 

This is the condition of the country until 
3'ou get south of the Arkansas river. Along 
the river the land is very rich, and held at a 
high valuation. The bottoms are principally 
adapted to corn, cotton and potatoes, while the 
uplands grow corn, cotton and strawberries. 

The Creek and Seminole nations are alike 
in that a large proportion of the population is 
made up of colored people. They live principal- 
ly along the water courses, while the upland 
and mountain sections are but thinly settled. 
The best land ranges from $15 to $50 per acre, 
and unimproved upland sells at from $5 to $15- 
This is not much of a wheat country, bing 
better adapted to corn, cotton and oats. There 
are good coal fields in the southwest part, in the 
north there are fields of oil and gas, and in the 
west there is considerable game. 

The Chickasaw country has more good land 
in proportion to acreage than an}^ other section 
of the country. The soil is adapted principally 



68 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

to corn and cotton. The land sells from $15 
to $50 per acre. Rough land in smaller amounts 
brings from $3 to $10 per acre. 

While the Choctaw country has lots of 
unimproved land, it is known principally for its 
great deposits of coal and asphalt. This is 
the greatest coal field west of the Alleghanies, 
and I believe will some day be ecjual to Penn- 
sylvania. Beginning at the northwest corner 
of the Choctaw country, the settlements are 
along the South Canadian river, Gaines creek 
and other water courses. Going south you 
enter the Sansbois mountains, where you can 
travel for half a day without seeing a house. 
In this country there are hickory flats and 
black jack. This would be a good country to 
colonize, but I would not advise people to go 
there unless in sufficient numbers to protect 
one another, for there is much complaint of 
thieves. 

There are many ridges, rocky canyons, and 
lots of rough country that is fit only for range, 
while along the streams there are canes, green 
grass and W'ild onions all winter. Further east 
are other mountains, much like the Sansbois, 
only they have more pine and cedar, and appear 
to be fuller of coal. Then the Poteau and 
Arkansas river bottoms are reached, full of 
malaria, though in spite of this fact some white 
people are living there. They have, indeed, 
lived there many years, and claim it is a good 
country, but I would advise anybody going 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 69 

there to be careful about malaria. The land 
is very rich. 

Coming back to the west line of the Choctaw 
countT}^ and going south McAlester is reached. 
Going east from here to the Arkansas line one 
scarcely for a moment loses sight of the coal 
mines that line the way. Some of the coal 
towns are good-sized, but they are mining towns 
purely and simply, and are not sujoported by 
the country round them. Wilburton is among 
the largest mining towns east of McAlester, and 
is located on the Choctaw railroad, on the west 
side of Pushmelean creek. It is situated in a 
gap on the south side of the Sansbois mountains, 
north of the Kiamitia mountains. It is a good- 
sized town, but the country, right up to the 
town limits, is but very thinly settled. 

Any of these towns offers a good opening 
to . the man who wants to keep a few cows 
and sell milk, or to raise poultry or vegetables. 
The stock can run at large, and the grass costs 
nothing, and the towns themselves are a good 
market for anything to eat. 

Leaving the Choctaw railroad and going 
south at an\' point east of McAlester you will 
be in the very thinly settled Kiamitia mountain 
section. Bearing to the southeast, j^ou will 
strike the head waters of the Kiamitia river, 
which is in the center of the game country. 
On Jack Fork of the Kiamitia you will find 
considerable beaver, black bears, deer, and turkeys 
in abundance. This is a good country for 



70 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

colonizers, as land is very cheap and the country 
is thinly settled. 

If, however, you are hunting big wolves, 
turkeys, wildcats and other small game, don't 
go any farther than the Winding Stair mountains 
or almost anywhere else in the brakes of the 
Kiamitia mountains. I went over this country 
not very long ago, and know what I am talking 
about. If you go any ways soon and don't 
find things as I have stated them to be, let 
me know. • 




TWO BRAIDS, ORA WOODMAN. 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE LIFE OF ORA A. WOODMAN. 

From the best evidence that the govern- 
rnent has ])een al^le to secure, this man was 
born somewhere in western Texas before the 
•civil war. Whether he has an}- living relatives 
or not will probably never be known, and 
what his real name is will also remain veiled 
in mystery. Whether he had father, mother, 
brother, sister, massacred by the red men, no 
one knows; or perhaps, he was torn from his 
mother's breast, leaving her to lament and 
bewail his loss. 

In all probability, however, he was stolen 
by . a warrior named Toey, since the warriors 
always kept the captives they took on a raid, 
and Ora's first recollections are of lighting 
Toey's pipe or doing other small chores for him 
about the camp. Doubtless, therefore, he was a 
•captive secured in some manner by Toey on 
some raid. 

But from this point Ora shall tell his own 
story: 

As soon as I was large enough I began 
bringing in wood and water, herding ponies, and 
so on. As soon as my age permitted, I was 
placed, with the other warriors, at the pleasant 
tasks of learning to ride horseback, learning 



74 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

to swim, and jumping on and off a horse while 
it was on a dead rmi. I was shown how 
to defend myself with a shield. This shield 
was made of the hide of an old bull, sometimes 
of the thick part of a buffalo hide. A piece 
cut from the neck or shoulders w^as throAvn 
over the fire and heated while green, and when 
it was as hot as it could be without burning- 
it was rubbed on a rough rock until all the 
meat had been scraped off. Then a smooth, 
stone was used until the hide became sm.ooth, 
soft and pliable. A hickory w'ithe is then 
made into a hoop and the raw hide is strapped 
on and sewed with thongs of leather. It 
looks like the head of a Mississippi banjo when 
it is finished and put away to dry. After it 
is thoroughly cured it is set up as a target,- 
and if an arrow pierces it or a bullet goes 
through it, it finds a place among the debris 
of the camp. If, however, it proves war- 
proof, a string is placed through each side, so 
it can be worn on the arm, and it is never 
far from its warrior-owner thereafter. The 
hairy side is next the arm and the smooth 
side faces the enemy. The moon, stars, ser- 
pents, turtles and other things are painted on 
the shield, in such way that it serves as a 
compass to guide and direct its owner on a 
rainy day. i--;'^ 

I was given one of these shields and placed 
about fifty yards from four braves, who took 
bows and blunt arrows and opened fire on me.. 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 75 

I knew what I had to do, for I had seen the 
performance before. I began moving the shield 
with all the caution I could, while the arrows 
rattled against it. I managed to ward them 
off for a while, but they were coming so fast 
that finally one of them passed just over the 
shield and took me squarely in the forehead. 
I saw stars, — not those painted ones on my 
shield, but real fiery, flashy ones. It downed 
me, and my comrades ceased fire for a while. 
As soon as I was up again, however, they 
began at me again, and I simply had to learn 
m}^ lesson. I was knocked down several times 
before I became an adept, but I finally learned. 
All the Indians are trained in this same fashion. 

After this they taught me how to ride in 
horse races. I was tied on the horse in the 
way in which I was expected to sit, — nearly 
straight, leaning a little forward, with my knees 
clamping the horse so as to cut the wind. 
After they quit tying me on I fell off several 
times. The horse sometimes would fly the 
track and have to be run down on the prairie, 
with me sometimes swinging beneath his belly. 
When I was tied on in training horses they 
would run around a lake, but in the gambling 
races a straight track was used, so neither horse 
would have the advantage. 

When I had learned to ride a horse I 
was given a shield, made to mount a horse, 
and then to run between bunches of Indians 
with bows and blunt arrows, who would fire 



76 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

at me in volleys as I went by. Many times 
I was knocked from my horse, and I have 
several scars on my head yet to remind me 
of this part of my schooling. 

I was next taught the Indian religion, 
which' is about as follows: The great spirit 
collected dust from the four corners of the 
earth to make man, so that when he died the 
earth would not refuse him a burial place. 
He said to man, "Thou hast not l^een taken 
from me, hence I cannot receive you into my 
bosom." When the great spirit created man 
the earth shook and trembled, and said unto the 
spirit, "How can I feed the vast multitude of 
men that will issue from this first created man?" 
And the spirit replied, "We will divide, the 
maintenance of man during the day time with 
all that thou producest, while when the night 
comes I will send my sleep upon man and he 
will rest and be fed by me with the peace of 
slumber and will awake refreshed in the morn- 
ing." 

The spirit took eight parts to form man: 
the body from the earth; l)ones from the stones; 
blood from the dew; the eyes from the depth 
of clear water; beauty from his own image; 
the light of the eyes from the sun; thoughts 
from the water falls; breath from the wind; 
strength from the storms. The first man was 
of such gigantic size that his head reached to 
heaven and his eyes looked from one end of 
the earth to the other. But manual labor 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 77 

and unwholesome food diminished his size and 
made him vuhierable. By proper food and the 
right kind of habits a warrior may become 
invulnerable, — a medicine man. 

When the great spirit created man he told 
all the inhabitants of the happy hunting ground 
to go and present themselves before him as one 
of his creation. All went except one, and he 
was cast out of the happy hunting grounds and 
made to range around on earth. This demon 
took refuge in the tooth of the serpent, the 
fang of the spider, the legs of the centipede, 
and other poisonous animals, insects and reptiles. 

To an average ear Indian music has neither 
melody nor rhythm nor harmony, but that is 
because he who hears does not understand. If 
he would study Indian music and learn to 
understand and appreciate it he would find that 
it does contain as much melody, rhythm and 
harmony as any music, and any one who studies 
the Indian religion and philosophy would know 
that w^e are not pagans nor savages, but that 
we know about as much of the unknowable 
as he does, and have seen perhaps even deeper. 
Perhaps we are from the same ancestors as the 
Comanehes, and they also believe that when 
the great spirit is made the sun betrays ■ it, and 
for the sun to set behind a cloud, or to have 
bad dreams, are sure signs of trouble, and that 
spider webs thick and low mean rain, and that 
spider w^ebs high and thin mean dry w^eather, 
and that for a bunch of ponies to be unusually 



78 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

restless, throwing their heads, stomping and 
switching their tails, is a sure sign of an electric 
storm. 

When all these facts have been closely 
observed, the instruction of the young warrior 
is complete. Herman Lehmann, the author of 
Indianology, gives about the same account as 
this in his experience with the Apaches. As 
the Apaches and Comanches w^ere together a 
great deal he and I were boys together and 
were trained in exactly the same way. In my 
judgment it has not been many years ago that 
the Comanches and Apaches were one tribe. 
My first name was Two Braids. That was the 
name my master gave me, but time rolled on, 
and at last Toey died. 

I put in most of my time hunting, fishing, 
and breaking horses for the tribe. Cowhides, 
horsehides and buffalo-hides were used in making 
tepees or wigwams. A deer's blades were used 
for writing paper, after it was well dressed, 
and was always given in charge of the chief. 
Our chief was named Council Chief, as he 
transacted all the business between the white 
men and the tribe. 

When we killed a horse the meat was eaten 
just as any other meat would have been. 
Friends, I would like to say that horse meat 
is very good to eat. You eat lots worse meat 
every day. Horses' bladders were used for 
knapsacks for carrying meat. When we killed 
cattle the meat was packed in this way and 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUlf)E 79 

the substance would stay with it. Cows' 
bladders were dressed and used for water sacks. 
I have seen some so large that they would 
hold almost a barrel of water. In making long 
marches we would eat cactus, as it would serve 
for water many hours. In this way the Indians 
could travel for hundreds of miles without finding 
a water hole. When we did find a water hole 
we would remain there for several days. Water 
w'as very scarce on the plains of Texas, New 
Mexico and Indian Territory. The other tribes 
considered that this country belonged to the Com- 
anches. 

Sometimes bands of other tribes would range 
over our hunting grounds, and then a fight 
W'Ould follow. Sometimes we were victorious, 
sometimes the enemy. If they outnumbered 
us we would gather more of our warriors and 
run them off, and if we could capture them 
we took all their belongings away from them 
and divided them among all those of our 
warriors . who were in the fight. When we 
returned to camp there would be a big stomp 
dance. If we lost the battle the squaws would 
mourn for three or four days. They would cut 
big gashes on their arms and legs. The old 
men who had lost sons in the battle wovild also 
cut big gashes in their legs, in order that the 
evil spirit who was working against them might 
cease his work. 

In this life I continued until after the treaty 
was signed with the western tribes. After the 



80 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

Comanches were shown their land there was no 
more fighting. The tribe seldom left the 
reservation without the government's consent. 
If they did they were punished by the govern- 
ment. After the treaty had been signed and 
the Indians had given up, an effort was made 
to restore to the white men all their property 
in the possession of the Indians. The white 
men came to Fort Sill and claimed their horses 
by the brands. The government took charge 
of the white children, three in number, a girl 
and three boys, of whom I was one. 

We were taken by a troop of soldiers back 
to Texas and an effort was made to find our 
parents. The other boy's mother was found 
near Corpus Christi, but the parents of the girl 
and myself were never found. We were bound 
out in Eratha county, she to a man named 
Heack, I to a man named Bybee. She re- 
mained there for some time afterw^ards, and 
then went to live with a family named Steven- 
son, where she remained until she married a 
telegraph operator, Avith Avhom she now lives 
at Las Cruces, N. M. 

The troop of soldiers remained in camp 
for some time. I did not like the man to 
whom I was bound out, and I could not under- 
stand English very well. The man was always 
trying to get me to w^ork around the place, so 
I got homesick to be back with the Comanches. 
Finally I ran off and w^ent to where the soldiers 
were camped and told them that I wanted tO' 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 81. 

go back to my people. But two of them 
took me back to the old man, and when they 
had returned to their camp he took a stick 
and, motioning like a medicine man, called upon 
the name of God and the devil, until I thought 
he was praying for me and having trouble 
with the great spirit. I had seen Indians 
sacrifice their children to the great spirit, and 
I thought that was what he was going to do 
with me. As he had no children, I thought he 
had sacrificed them all. He finally wore him- 
self out trjdng to make me understand what 
he w^anted me to do, and quit trying for a 
while. I was very well satisfied that I had 
been spared for another time. 

I meant no harm; I simply wanted to go 
back to the Comanches, and this I thoroughly 
intended to do, no matter at what cost. I 
would dream at night of the Wichita mountains 
and their clear running streams; of the deer 
and the rabbits and the horse races and the 
big Indian camps. And then, when I would 
wake to find myself on an old bedstead, shut 
up in a tight house, away down in Texas, — well, 
this might have suited some people, but it did 
not suit me. So I watched the soldiers' camp, 
and early one morning I discovered that they 
were preparing to move. I knew that they 
were going back to Fort Sill, so I shpped around 
them and got on the road ahead of them four 
or five miles. When they came up to me I 
went to the wagon, and they said I had to go 



82 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

back. But I. told them I was going to my 
people. They said I had no people. I told 
them that the Comanches were my people. 
Finally, after some rough words, they agreed 
to let me go back with them, that is, if I 
would take care of the horses and do other 
work around the camp. If ever you saw a 
fellow tickled, that was I. When they bound' 
me out to the old man the soldiers gave me 
the name of Ora A. Woodman, and I still 
go by that name. When we got back to Fort 
Sill, in the fall of the year, none of the Indians 
were living about the forts; they were all 
living back in the mountains, camped around 
the big spring. I hung around the fort for 
about a month, waiting for some Indians to 
come in. One evening I was standing on the 
west side of the fort, looking across the flat 
between the fort and the sentinel, out on a 
high hill, when I saw, about two miles to the 
west, a cloud of dust rising. I knew it was 
either a bunch of Indians or a herd of buffalo, 
so 1 waited and watched the dust-cloud closely. 
As they passed through the gap the sun was 
very low, and I could see by the way the sun 
shone on them that they w^ere sure enough 
Indians. So I took after them, following them 
on foot until night. Then I came upon them, 
camped on Beaver creek, and I could tell 
pretty well which tepee belonged to the chief. 
They were ■ all laughing and talking, and I was 
so overjoyed that I ran and jumped right in 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 83 

the middle of the chief's tepee. They all jumped 
up and ran out of the tepee, and there was a 
big stir among them for a while. But they 
soon found me and knew me, and they caught 
me and rubbed and petted me and I was 
indeed the center of attraction for some time. 
The whole camp listened to my story and 
shared in my joy. When they had finished 
rejoicing over my return two old women took 
me and scrubbed me and put a buckskin suit 
and moccasins on me and gave me a bow and 
some arrows, and I was a heap big Indian 
again. 

One of these two old women was noted 
for her kind-heartedness. Once two Mexican 
gamblers, who had come to the camps and won 
about all that the Comanches had, were accused 
by the Indians of having played unfairly. So 
the Comanches caught the Mexicans and took 
from them all the possessions they had won, and, 
when they got ready to . move camp, hung the 
Mexincas to a tree. But the tree was small, 
and the feet of one of the gamblers touched 
the ground. The old woman, after the crowd 
had left, slipped back and cut the Mexicans 
down. One of them revived, but the other 
was dead. The one made his escape, is alive 
to this day, and has in just the last few years 
visited the ol(d woman and thanked her again 
for saving his life. When the Comanches found 
out that she had cut the Mexicans down they 
cut off the end of her nose. She lives on 



84 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

Cache creek, and is known as the Woman-That- 
Cut-the-Mexican-Down . 

The year that General Sherman was visiting 
all the western forts a small band broke out 
and burned a wagon train and its contents. 
He came, past a short time afterwards, saw the 
remains of the wagons, and reported the affair 
to the government. Those Indians were hunted 
down and punished by the law, serving a long 
sentence. Lone Wolf was the war chief on 
that occasion. He w^as sent to the penitentiary, 
where, two weeks after his incarceration, he 
hung himself. 

I was kept by first one and then another 
of the Comanches, until finally, like all the 
other white children in the Comanche tribe when 
they had nowhere else to go, I wound up at 
Quanah Parker's. Here I put in the time 
breaking horses and hunting for game. We 
had two modes of himting, one by day, and 
one by night, with a light. The light was made 
by taking an old dry cow chip and pouring 
warm tallow over it until it was thoroughly 
saturated. Then it was placed on a stick and 
wrapped well in green bear grass. It was then 
ready to light. At the tepee one piece would 
last for several hours, and would make a big 
light all around. When hunting one person 
would carry the light and the other the gun. 
You could see the eyes of any animal that was 
anywhere in gun-shot by this means, and ^you 
could kill wild cattle, deer, antelope and even 



AND homesp:ekers' guide 85 

bear. The peculiar feature is that the hght 
seems to take complete control of the bear. In 
looking at the light he forgets that he is a 
bear, or that he ever has been one. and you 
can go right up to him and shoot him wherever 
3'ou want to. 

The Indians spent the winter in the Wichita 
mountains on account of the abundance of game. 
In the spring the game would follow down the 
streams to where they would raise their young, 
as . wild game of every kind takes to running 
streams and small creeks during the summer 
season. So the Indians did likewise, following 
up the ^ame. During the summer the Indian 
scjuaws would cure and dress the hides that had 
accumulated throughout the winter, making the 
hides and furs into clothing for the coming 
winter. The meat that had been killed during 
the winter season was dried and served the same 
as bread. When we killed a deer or game of 
ally kind we drank the blood, filled our hides 
with raw meat, and then dressed the game, 
tied it . on our horses, and pulled out for camp. 

I staid with the Indians a great deal, and 
especially with Quanah Parker, until the year 
1889, when old Oklahoma was opened for settle- 
ment. I was stationed at Fort Reno, and the 
boomers were camped in big squads along the 
border of the promised land. They held a 
boomers' meeting on April 21. I had been 
invited to attend the meeting several times 
but I had told them that I was not ver^- well 



86 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

acquainted Avith the ways of the white man^ 

and didn't care to attend. The leader said, 

"ycout, there are lots of pretty girls down 
there." 

"That's what I am afraid of," I said. On 
the third, they sent a party of ladies to see me. 
They talked and talked, and finally, when I 
got a chance to say something, I said, "Well, 
I will go, just to get rid of you." 

So we went, a distance of about nine 
miles. I never had a chance to put in a word 
edgew'ays. When we reached the camp we 
were met by about five hundred people. They 
threw their hats in the air and yelled and 
whooped, and the old women shook their aprons 
and laughed at the girls. 

My- feelings at this moment no human 
tongue could tell. I was just about to put 
spurs to my horse, in order to escape from 
such a mob, when two of the leaders made 
their way through the crowd and came up to 
me, as I was sitting on my horse. I guess I 
must have been frozen there. One of the men 
said, "I am Wagon Spoke Jim and that is my 
friend, Boomer ^like." The men showed the 
effect of a long camp life. They invited me to 
dismount, saying that supper would soon be 
ready. Pretty soon I began to wish that I was 
back in my own camp. Wagon Spoke Jim 
mounted the front end of an eight horse trail 
wagon and, with a wagon hammer, began pound- 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 87 

ing on the wagon. When there was a fair 
degree of quiet he said: 

"Ladies and gentlemen, this young man is 
Scout Woodman, or Two Braids, as he is called 
by the Indians. He knows every cow trail in 
iths part of the country. He was recommended 
to us by the officers at Fort Reno. It is to 
our advantage, friends, to gain what information 
we can concerning the lands to be opened on 
the 29th." 

I was then asked to get up and tell them 
something about the lands in the new country. 
This I declined to do. I told them that I 
could not talk English very well, a-nd that I 
did not care to talk. About this time dish 
pans began rattling and dogs began barking, 
and Wagon Spoke Jim said, "All hands to 
supper." 

It was about 5 o'clock in the evening. I 
was invited to take supper with them, and I 
sat down on the ground between Wagon Spoke 
Jim and Boomer Mike. I could see nothing 
but my plate, for every time I looked up every- 
body was looking at me. I sat there, having 
no appetite. They looked at my buckskin 
suit and moccasins and asked all sorts of ques- 
tions. When supper was over and the ground 
had been cleared Boomer Mike jumped out in 
the cleared space, cracked his heels together, 
and shouted, "All hands for the dance." 

Then came an old gray-bearded man and 
took a seat on a wagon-tongue. He bowed 



88 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

his head towards his toes and began working 
his head and fingers, playing some kind of music. 
I had never seen such a thing before, nor heard 
such music. Then Boomer Mike began shout- 
ing, and tliey all whirled around and around 
in a circle, the men kicking first forwards and 
then backwards, and the girls sort of pausing 
and then going ahead again, and laughing all 
the time. After while they all stopped and 
Wagon Spoke Jim came up to me and I said 
to him, "What are all you people doing?" 

I was somewhat better acquainted with him 
by this time than with any of the others, so I 
asked him, "What is that old man doing?" 

He explained that they were dancing, and 
that the old man was playing the fiddle. That 
was the Arkansaw Traveler he had just played, 
he said, and Boomer Mike did the calling. 

They danced until midnight, and then the 
women went to bed in the tents, or rag houses, 
as they called them, the men went to sleep in 
their wagons, and I wrapped myself in my 
saddle blankets and slept on the ground with 
my saddle for a pillow. Next morning we 
held another meeting, and for seven ponies I 
agreed to take them to the big flats known as 
the nine-mile flats and the 7-C flats, where the 
entire party afterwards located. 

After the country had been opened, and I 
had filled my contract with these people, I 
returned to the reservation. I would like to say 
that I was well-treated in every respect l^y these 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 89 

people. The following fall and winter I trapped 
and hunted luitil spring, when I was called 
to the headquarters of the United States marshal 
at Guthrie, Oklahoma. From there I guided Cap- 
tain A. Tilley and his posse to Sod Town in 
No-Man's iand. 

I remained in that line of business sixteen 
months. Finally, growing tired of it, I quit, 
and went back to the reservation, where I 
remained, hunting and trapping, until the spring 
of 1893. Then Buffalo Bill came to Fort Sill 
for Indians, cowboys and guides for his big 
show, which was then in Chicago, for the 
World's Fair. I entered his employ, and in 
Chicago saw many sights. When the show 
season closed the Indians and I returned to the 
reservation. 

In the spring of 1894 I secured a job as 
deputy United vStates marshal for Oklahoma. 
That was the year that the Dalton gang and 
other outlaws were so active, holding up trains 
and robbing banks along the border. It was 
on September 9 that the Dalton gang held up 
a passenger train for an hour and a quarter. 
The chief marshal received a telegram from the 
station, saying that the train had been robbed. 
I happened to be in the office when the tel- 
egram was received. There was no chance to 
back out. The chief marshal said: 

"Scout Tavo Braids, I am going to send 
nine of you men up there." So eight more of the 
best men were called into the office. Said our 



90 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

chief: "I have received a telegram from Red 
Rock telhng me that the Dalton gang has held 
the train there for an hour and fifteen minutes. 
Get your guns and horses ready, and I'll have 
a car to load your horses in. You can start 
inside of forty minutes." 

While we were waiting for the engine to 
get our car ready, the chief gave us our in- 
structions. He began by asking us what we 
expected to do when we got there. From our 
answers you would have been led to believe 
that our little party could have whipped a 
hundred men. Finally he said, "Scout Two 
Braids, what are you going to do?" 

''Well, captain," I said, "I know those 
men, and I had rather hunt them two months 
than find them in two minutes, for I don't 
think it would take over a minute and a half 
to wind up all the business that we have Avith 
them." 

We loaded our horses and started, but 
fortune seemed to favor us, for hardly had we 
gone half a mile when the engine jumped the 
track. There were nine of us and five of the 
outlaws. They were the most dreaded gang 
in the territory. 

On October 9, they were killed at Coffey- 
ville, Kansas, a border town. They had .just 
robbed two banks there, and were killed by 
citizens while trying to escape. 

During this time the territory was full of 
outlaws. Some were caught and some were 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 91 

brought in. Often Ave got into tighter places 
than Ave liad ever figured on. 

During the following winter we took a trip 
to the Texas Panhandle. We were expecting 
serious trouble, but didn't happen to meet it. 
The Guthrie Capital thus described the result: 
*'A Grand Round-Up. Deputy United States 
Marshals brought back a bunch of westerners. 
Deputy United States Marshal Lilley and his 
outfit, C. W. Russell, Scout Two Braids, Judge 
Mosley, John Day, brought from the Cheyenne 
and Arapahoe country yesterday afternoon six- 
teen prisoners, charged with almost every kind 
of offense, from petit larceny to highway robbery. 
They had a rather interesting time taking their 
men out of the country, as they ranged all 
the Avay from a horse thief to a county clerk. 
When the officers Avere on their way here with 
their prisoners they Avere followed for three 
days by a mounted gang, but Avhich neA^er came 
close enough to make an attack. 

"On the third day they suddenly approached 
on the top of a neighboring hill, their guns and 
reA'olvers glistening in the sunshine. Tavo men 
rode forward and demanded ths release of the 
prisoners. They were told that it Avould take 
a fight to get them released, and if the gang 
thovight they had better men than the posse, 
then they could take the prisoners and turn 
them loose. So the fight never came off. It 
was a test of nerA'e, however. They say that 
Judge MosleA' craAvled into a bread box and 



•92 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

pulled the lid down after him, when the glisten- 
ing of the enemy's guns blinded him. Threaten- 
ing letters had been sent that the officers would 
be attacked and would not be allowed to take 
the prisoners out of the country, and trouble 
was expected at any moment." 

Jiidge Mosley was a government inspector. 
One trip of this kind satisfied him. As soon 
as he got back to the railroad he took a train 
for Washington, D. C, and I have never seen 
him from that day since. 

I served my time as a deputy United 
states ■ marshal until my term was up. Then 
I returned to the reservation. In the following 
spring the troops left Fort Sill to go to the 
Sac and Fox agency. I was detailed to pilot 
the troops through. We remained at the 
agency for some time, until the troops were 
ordered back to Fort Sill. I was not ready 
to go back with them, for during the time that I 
was stationed there I met one of the prettiest 
cowgirls that ever rode the range. She was 
a white girl, and we were married the following 
winter, on February 16th. 

Tt was in the following spring that a city 
election was held at Chandler, Oklahoma. I 
attended it, for it w^as the first election I had 
the chance to see. First one and then another 
and another was nominated, until finally the 
mayor of the town said, "Gentleman, I place 
in nomination O. A. Woodman, better known 
as Two Braids, for the office of citv marshal, to 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 93: 

be voted for at the city election on the first 
clay of May, 1895." 

Every man that had been nominated had 
to make his Httle speech. They told what they 
would do if they were elected. Finally it came 
my turn to talk. I said, "Gentlemen, I 
appreciate all that you have done for me. ' I 
am no orator, so I haven't much of a talk to 
make, but if I am elected marshal of this city 
I will do my duty as a marshal and carry 
the law out to the letter." 

They stamped the floor and shouted, "He 
is the man for the place." I was closely 
followed down the street by the mob until we 
reached Ma3"or Reeves' saloon. Here they all 
turned in. I told the saloon-keeper to give 
them what they wanted, and said that I would 
pay the bill. There were three of us in the 
race, a gentleman by the name of Lawn Polen, 
on the Independent ticket, and Billy Randolph, 
on the Democratic ticket. When election day 
came I was elected by a large majority. After 
I had taken the office nothing of interest oc- 
curred until June 19, when • the Cook gang rode 
into town and robbed the bank. A fight 
followed. It was almost seven against nothing.. 
I was standing almost opposite the bank when 
Jim Frank and Tulsa Jack rode down the 
middle of the street. Bill Cook and the Kid, 
as he was called, and Sam McWilliams, entered 
the bank from the back way. The first that 
I knew they were in town was when Jim Frank 



94 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

called in a loud voice, "Scout Two Braids 
you, we've- got you this time." 

At the crack of his gun I must have jumped 
fourteen feet, and immediately I started on the 
run for my house, about a block and a half 
away. . My wife met me with my Winchester 
and two boxes of cartridges, and then she went 
back to the house, and with our seven months 
old baby lay flat on the floor until the fight 
was over. 

Tulsa Jack told in jail after his arrest that 
he took two straight shots at that woman, — ni}' 
wife. That house seemed to be a target for 
the gang, for they shot volley after volley into 
it. They lost three men in that battle, and 
there was one citizen killed and four Avounded. 
I also received a wound in my side during this 
engagement. The gang were followed to the 
Creek nation, where they were captured the 
following winter. 

After the fight things were very peaceable 
for a frontier town. So, when I had served 
my term as city marshal, I returned to the 
reservation. Then I. joined the buffalo show 
that traveled during the summer in the Northern 
and Eastern states. I came back to the 
reservation and hunted and trapped until the 
3^ear of the St. Louis World's Fair, when I took 
a bunch of Comanches and cowboys to Colonel 
F. T. Cummings' Wild West show, stationed at 
St. Louis. We remained there until the fair 
was over. We then went back to the reserva- 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 95 

tion, where we remained until April 1, 1906, 
Avhen I took a bunch of Indians and cowboys to 
Younger Brothers' Oklahoma Wild West show 
opening at Dallas, Texas. 

On August 12, 1906. Two Braids was 
living at Lawton, Oklahoma. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA, OR RED MOON. 

It will be remembered that the Comanches 
were not able to handle the Texas Rangers in 
the war known as the treaty war in 1860, and 
were forced to retire to the plains north of the 
Red river. They started in then to get help 
from their red brothers, and made a treaty 
with the Apaches and other associated tribes. 
A council of war was held in the Wichita 
mountains in the fall of the same year. 

It was decided that in the spring of 1861, 
on the first full moon after the first whipporwill 
had been heard, all the Western bands should 
come together in the mountains and that Texas 
must make a treaty with the Comanches for all 
the lands of their fathers. But in the spring 
of 1861 came the news of the great rebellion, 
and the head men of the Confederacy made 
liberal- treaties with all the Southern tribes. 
So there was nothing more done until the spring 
of 1865, when the Southern and Western In- 
dians held a meeting at Poison spring, now 
in the Chickasaw country. 

At this meeting it was decided that they 
should throw all their forces together and insist 
on a liberal treaty. Colonel Stan Waitey was 
selected as their chief. Then, however, the 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 97 

news of Lee's surrender was received, which 
put a stop to this move. This meeting was 
the largest in point of attendance, and from 
the number of tribes represented, that history- 
records as having been held by the Indians. 
If Lee had not surrendered the white people of 
the Western states would have suffered terrible 
losses. 

In the fall of 1868 the Comanches, Kiowas, 
Cheyennes and Arapahoes got together and 
decided to make a last struggle for a liberal 
treaty. Fort Elliott had been established on 
the plains of Texas, and Fort Supply had been 
established on Beaver creek in what is now 
Woodward county, Oklahoma. But, in spite of 
the menace of the forts, the Indians began 
their old tricks, raiding the borders of Texas 
and the plains. 

Possibly there never was a stronger and 
more daring army of warriors on the plains 
than these Indians. The United States troops 
were commanded by Majors Elliott and Custer, 
who held the same rank. They had to use a 
great deal of caution. As the winter came 
on, however, and the buffalo drifted further 
west, tlie Indians had to go into winter quar- 
ters. On account of the extremely cold weather 
they moved into the cane brakes of the Washita 
river, which was frozen over. 

On December 20, a heavy snow fell, and 
the Indians consequently decided to make peace. 
They selected this place on the Washita river 

7 



98 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

as the proper place for the council of peace 
and the making of the treaty. This program 
would doubtless have been agreeable with Majors 
Custer and Elliott if they had known the in- 
tentions of the Indians. 

But there was a certain band chief by the 
name of Black Kettle, who in the beginning 
had taken no part in the council of war, claim- 
ing that he would not shed the blood of the 
white man. Although he had moved around with the 
balance of the Indians on their raids, he claimed 
that he had no part or right in the council of 
peace, so he moved up the river about five 
miles to a small bend, in the shape of a horse- 
shoe. There were about three hundred men, 
women and children in Black Kettle's party, 
and they made a big, plain track in the snow. 

Romeo, one of the noted government scouts, 
found this trail, and followed it almost to Black 
Kettle's camp. Then he went and told Custer, 
who was at that time at Fort Supply, that a 
small bunch of Indians were camped by them- 
selves. Other scouts brought in word of the 
other larger Indian camp. Custer and Elliott 
knew the effect on the Indians of routing them 
out from their comfortable winter quarters. 
Therefore they took as many soldiers as could 
be spared from the fort and slipped out across 
the South Canadian river. 

I had considerable trouble finding any 
Indian that was in this battle, from whom I 
could secure an authentic account. Finally I 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 99 

heard of Mrs. Lone Wolf, who hves near the 
spot where the battle was fought. She appears 
to be a very mtelligent Cheyenne woman, 
though she could not speak English. I was 
introduced to her and her husband by an in- 
terpreter, and after exchanging presents, which 
is the custom of the Chej^ennes, I told her my 
business. At first she seemed to be afraid, 
but after she had been well assured that I 
meant no harm, she appeared delighted to talk 
on the subject. 

She said: "I was about sixteen years old. 
We had camped at this place but a few days. 
When we first went into camp there a white 
cloth about the size of a blanket had been 
taken and sewed on a long pole, and Black 
Kettle gave orders that if anyone saw the 
soldiers they must raise this pole. That night 
it was very cold, and my father staid on guard 
until after midnight. The moon shone all 
night long. 

"When my father lay down another Indian 
by the name of Double Wolf took his place. 
It was so cold that Double Wolf came in and 
lay down. Day had just begun to break when 
I heard somebody halloing. Double Wolf jump- 
ed up and ran outside. Instead of raising the 
white flag he fired his gun. My father jumped 
up. Just then several shots were fired. My 
father and Double Wolf fell dead. Then the 
shooting stopped for a moment. 

u Of d 



100 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

"We all ran out of our tepees and tried 
to run out through the narrow entrance. We 
saw white men in front of us motioning to us 
to go back. Then the battle began. I don't 
know which side began shooting first. I fell 
on my face in the snow and could hear nothing 
but guns. At last the shooting stopped, and 
the next thing that I knew a soldier punched 
me with his gun and motioned to me to get 
up. There were several other, women lying 
close to me. Men, women and children lay 
dead everywhere. I saw many of the warriors 
lying dead with their guns in their hands. 

"The ponies, after being shot, broke away, 
and ran about, bleeding, until they dropped. 
In this way the snow on the whole bend of the 
river was made red with blood. This is the 
reason we call it the red moon. 

"We crossed the river on the ice, and the 
women and children were put on horse back. 
We started north towards Fort Supply. I saw 
Major Elliott and a number of other men start 
down the river. I knew Major Elliott, as I 
had seen him many times before. W.e had 
camped on the South Canadian, had made a 
big fire, and were warming ourselves when a 
bunch of Tonkawa scouts came in and brought 
the news that Major Elliott and his entire party 
had been killed. 

"We had a law among ourselves that if 
we had any prisoners, and any of our people 
should be killed by the prisoners' friends, we 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 101 

should kill that many prisoners. We thought, 
therefore, when we heard this news, that a part 
of our people would be killed in retaliation for 
the killing of Major Elliott and his men. So 
our warriors asked how many were to be killed, 
60 that they might prepare to die. They sent 
me to General Custer to find out. I went to 
the interpreter and told him I wanted to see 
General Custer. I was taken close to him, 
and I asked him through the interpreter how 
many prisoners he was going to kill for Major 
Elliott. He covered his face with his hands 
and refused to speak for a minute. One of 
the soldiers started to drive me and the inter- 
preter away, but Custer raised his head, saw 
that we were going away, and made the soldier 
bring us back to him. 

"Then he said, 'White people don't kill 
prisoners.' He told me, further, that as long 
as we did not try to run away, and as long 
as we behaved ourselves, none of us would be 
hurt. So we built a big fire, and the smoke 
went straight up into the sky, so that the old 
Indians said that the great spirit was with us 
and would deliver us back into our tribe. Then 
we took meat and ate it, the first we had eaten 
since the night before, though it had been offered 
us before that day. From that time on we 
had plenty to eat and good warm blankets to 
wear, and I am sure if Double Wolf had done 
what Black Kettle told him to do, there would 
not have] been a gun fired. Though many of 



102 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

my people deny it, I know that Double Wolf 
fired the first shot." 

The story of the massacre of Major Elliott, 
as I got it from one who participated in it, 
is as follows: "We had been aroused early in 
the morning by the sound of a heavy battle up 
the river, which we knew was at Black Kettle's 
camp. The whole camp started up the river. 
Near the mouth of a creek we were signaled by 
those in front to lie down. We all hid in the 
tall grass. In a short time the war whoop 
was raised, and we saw Black Kettle and two 
other warriors. We listened to his story. He 
said that Double Wolf had raised the white 
flag, but that the soldiers had shot him down. 
Black Kettle said his whole band had been 
massacred. He himself had been wounded twice 
and was covered with blood. 

"We started on up the river, when we were 
again signaled to lie down. In a few minutes 
we heard the war whoop again. Springing out 
of the big grass we saw a bunch of soldiers. 
One, I knew, was Major Elliott. The soldiers 
undertook to pass back through our lines. They 
made a gallant attempt to pierce the line, and 
one of the fiercest battles I ever knew resulted. 
There were nineteen white men and something 
over five hundred warriors. More than forty 
warriors were killed. We rushed in bunches, 
and in a few minutes all the white men were 
killed Ijut one. We wanted to take him pris- 
oner and take him back to the camp and put 



AND HOMESEEKERS GUIDE 103 

him to death for the general amusement of 
the whole camp. 

"This was the sergeant major. He was a 
tall, slim man, with keen blue eyes. When 
his gun was emptied, he grabbed his sword. 
He seemed to know our intentions, and preferred 
to die on the field like a soldier. The Indians 
used their guns like clubs, trying to knock his 
l^word from his hands, or to slip up behind him 
and knock him down. But like a panther 
driven to bay he fought, with no thought of 
surrender, cutting and slashing right and left. 

"Indians fell all around him. Our leader 
was close at hand, shouting, 'Close in on him 
and take him alive.' Suddenly, rightly judging 
him to be the leader, the sergeant major sprang 
at him and pierced him through with the sword. 
This excited the Indians, and they shot him 
down. 

"Old Indians who had been in many fights 
all claimed that never had there been such a 
man." 

Even to this day the ground on which the 
Sergeant Major fell is regarded as holy ground, 
and the creek was named Sergeant Major creek, 
after him. When the Indians went back to 
scalp the dead the chief of the Kiowas, whose 
name was Big Cow, ran and sat down on Major 
Elliott's head and would not let him be scalped. 
Big Cow said that Major Elliott had been a 
friend to him at one time. The Cheyennes 
skinned the ponies that had been killed in the 



104 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

battle, making dried meat out of their bodies 
and clothes out of the hides. This food and 
clothing enabled them to carry on the war 
until, in the spring of 1869, they met the 
government authorities at Fort Douglas, Kansas, 
where they made a treaty ])y which they were 
given the country which they have since in 
habited. 

Many of these same Cheyennes left their 
reservation and went north, where they took 
part with Sitting Bull in the massacre of General 
Custer in 1876. 




GEROXIMO, CHIEF OF THE APACHES 



CHAPTER IX. 
HISTORY OF THE WICHITA MOUNTAINS. 

A visit to Oklahoma would not be complete 
without a trip to the Wichita mountains. These 
mountains have long been known by miners as 
rich in minerals, and they have long looked 
forward to the time when they might develop 
them. 

According to Spanish records Father Gilbert, 
with one hundred men, led an expedition into 
the Wichita mountains as early as 1657, and 
sunk a shaft to the depth of one hundred feet 
about nine miles northwest of Mount Scott. 
About the year 1738 another expedition was 
lead to the mountains, and work was begun 
towards developing a mine in Devil's canon. 
The members of the second expedition were 
mostly Mexican peons. They were attacked by 
the Kiowas, who massacred all but three of the 
party, who escaped to Mexico. There they made 
a map of the mines, which was finally secured 
by a Mexican miner who returned to the 
mountains many years later and unearthed the 
old mines, finding many relics of the former 
possessors. Whether he found any of the treasure 
ever discovered by the first party is not known, 
as he did not return to the mountains from a 
second visit to Mexico. 



108 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

The old mine is on the North fork of the 
Hed river, and is at the extreme northwest 
•corner of the range of momitains. It had long 
been called the Haunted canon by the Indians, 
but is now known as DeAil's canon. 

The next expedition of which there is any 
record was formed at Jacksboro, Texas, in 1852, 
;and w^as lead by J. McElroth and McCall. 
They stated that they found gold on Otter creek, 
near where Needman's smelter now stands. 
While returning to Texas they were attacked by 
•the Indians on Cash creek, and the whole party 
ivas massacred, except McCall and McElroth, 
i\'ho made their escape down Cash creek b}' 
night. 

When visiting the Wichita mountains , I 
began at Roosevelt, near the northwest corner, 
wdiere I met R. W. Hail, a citizen of the 
Chickasaw Nation, whose present address is 
Hoosevelt, Oklahoma. He invited me to go 
-out to his camp at the Lone Jack mines. He 
is an old miner, and gave me great assistance 
in writing up the history of the mountains. He 
:and A. E. Andrus of Mangum, Oklahoma, a 
wealthy farmer and in every wa}" a perfect 
gentleman, together with about a hundred others, 
•organized a mining company on Otter creek in 
IDOO, and Andrus built the first storehouse in 
-"Kiowa county. It was begun the night of 
August 6 and was completed the morning of 
"the next day. By evening Andrus was selling 
,:goods there.. It was located in the little town 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE lOQ' 

of Wildman, the center of the mining district. 
R. W. Rail . first discovered the Gotebo oil 
fields in 1889. 

Among the highest peaks in the Wichita 
mountains is Baker's peak, near the center of 
the range. During General Arbuckle's trip 
through the mountains one of his scouts became 
separated from the army and was attacked by 
Indians, who shot his horse from under him at 
the foot of this peak. Baker, the scout, 
managed to make his way to the top of the 
peak, which can be reached in only one direc- 
tion, up a narrow defile. The Indians tried in 
many ways to get at him, but every time a 
head appeared above the rim rock the scout 
put a bullet through it with his rifle. They 
tried to crowd up while his gun was empty, 
but there were lots of rocks handy, and Baker 
used these so effectively that they were unable 
to rush up on him. 

Finally they sent up a shower of arrows, 
but he sheltered himself behind some big rocks 
and was not touched. At last, therefore, they 
settled down to starve Baker out. For three 
days the siege continued. Meanwhile the arnw 
had gone on, camping several miles south of the 
peak. When Baker failed to return the next 
morning a searching party was sent out, which, 
however, failed to find the missing man. For 
three days, however, the search was continued, 
until, on the evening of the third day, as one 
of the ^officers was standing on the top of a 



110 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

high hill, 'scanning the surrounding country 
with a field glass, he noticed a puff of smoke 
from the top of the peak which now bears 
Baker's name. 

Immediately a rescue party was sent to the 
peak, which found that Baker had l^een fighting 
against seventy Indians. For three days he had 
not had a bite to eat nor a drop to drink. 

Fort Sill was established on the southeast 
corner of these movmtains in 1869 by General 
Sheridan, General Custer being the first com- 
manding field officer. When Sheridan was in 
the country establishing the fort his curiosity 
was aroused at the character of the rock com- 
posing the mountains and at the stories told 
by the Indian scouts, and he did some prospect- 
ing on a high mountain several miles north of 
the fort. The mountain is still called Mount 
Sheridan. 

There is some game in the mountains and 
the water is good. From every point of view, 
the mountains are well worth a visit. It doesnt 
matter how many mountains you may have seen 
elsewhere, if you have not seen the Wichita 
mountains, you still have something to see. 




WASH ROBINSON, A NOTED COLORED SCOUT 



CHAPTER X. 
WASH ROBINSON. 

• Wash Robinson was born in Old Mexico, 
as nearly as he remembers, about the year 
1840. When quite a boy, he was stolen by 
the Navaho Indians. When he was nearly 
•grown, he was sold by them to the Pueblos. 
After having been with them for some time, he 
left, and went to the Wichita mountains. He 
was next taken prisoner at the battle of Big 
Frame on the Santa Fe trail, and taken to 
Washington. 

He could talk no English at all, but he was 
proficient in Spanish and in several Indian 
tongues. He didn't know what his English 
name was, or even what his right name was in 
Spanish, so he was named George Washington. 
After having been kept for some time as a 
prisoner of war, he gave his parole, and enlisted 
in the United States army. He was put in a 
colored company, and soon learned to talk 
English. As there were already four George 
Washington in his company, his name was chang- 
ed to Wash Robinson, by which he is still 
known. 

In 1869 he came to Fort Reno with his 
company, and participated in most of the raids 
after Indians, and took part in the efforts to 

8 



114 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

drive the sooners out of Oklahoma. Having 
been raised by the Indians, he was thoroughly 
conversant with all their manners and customs, 
so that he was a very valuable scout. 

On one occasion, when engaged in putting 
Oklahomans out of the country, as Wash Robin- 
son tells the story himself, he met the well- 
known Captain Payne, who had come in from 
Kansas with about fifty families and had settled 
on the south side of the Seminole river in old 
Oklahoma proper. Payne and his men had 
thrown up breastworks and were prepared for a 
siege. They said they would die before they 
would leave the country. 

Colonel Grayson was ordered from Fort 
Reno with two companies of soldiers to put them 
out. A cowboy working for Campbell, a big 
cattleman in that country in those days, saw 
the soldiers coming and Avarned the sooners,. 
with whom he had become accjuainted. 

"All right," said Captain Payne, when the 
warning had been given him, "let them come." 
The boomers collected inside their fort and pre- 
pared for battle. When the soldiers arrived at 
the breastwork they went into camp. Colonel,. 
Grayson went over to see Captain Payne, who 
told the colonel to pitch whenever he got 
ready. The colonel laughed and said he wasn't 
cjuite ready for a fight; that he didn't propose 
to cause any bloodshed unless it was absolutely 
necessarv. 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 115 

So the soldiers waited there several days, 
becoming very friendly with Captain Payne and 
his men. Said the colonel to one of his 
officers: "There isn't any use hurting these 
people; it's bad enough to be forced to put 
them out. I hate to have to do it, but I'm 
not responsible for my orders, and all I can 
do is to obey." 

One morning, therefore, when the boomers 
were all awa}^ at their different tasks, and there 
w^as no one in their camp but Captain Payne 
and five or six others. Colonel Grayson took 
Wash Robinson and six or seven other soldiers 
and dropped in to see the captain. Said the 
colonel: "Now, captain, you had better give 
up; I have to put you out." 

Then the soldiers and the boomers locked 
horns, and around and around the tent they 
wrestled, overturning benches, tables and every- 
thing else. When the fight was over, though, 
the boomers were all hogtied. There were 
several bloody noses and black eyes, though in 
the latter respect the soldiers had the advantage, 
for they were all negroes, and their black eyes 
did not show. 

After Captain Payne and those with him 
had been tied a signal was given, and the 
soldiers rushed in, took possession of the camp, 
and hauled the boomers back across the line 
into Kansas. 

The Indians tell a good story on Wash 
Robinson, which, though he denies it, is too 



116 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

good to keep. A certain Cheyenne chief took 
a lot of buffalo pouches, filled them with water 
and tied them to the ponies of his men. Then 
the band struck out across the plains. The 
soldiers, of course, had to follow them. This 
was not . difficult, as the Indians made a broad, 
plain trail. In order that the soldiers might 
not overtake them the Indians carefully avoided 
every water hole. The soldiers had neglected 
to take any water with them, but, thinking 
they could do without water as long as the 
Indians, they kept right on after them. Camp 
after camp of the Indians was passed, however, 
and still no water was found. At last the 
soldiers were away out on the plains, and here 
the Indians' tracks scattered. 

Accordingly, the soldiers also scattered out. 
None of them but Wash Robinson, however, 
could follow a trail, and, as their borses were 
dying of thirst, and as they themselves were 
faint, they had to shape their course for the 
South Canadian river. Robinson, however, kept 
on the trail. It lead into the brakes, and 
finally to a canon with timber and a good 
spring, where the Indians were camped, giving 
their ponies a rest. 

He knew that if he turned back he would 
die of thrist, so he chose to go forward. The 
Indians took him prisoner and gave him some- 
thing to eat and drink, though if he had been 
a white man they would have killed him. They 
knew him^ however, and did not want to kill 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 117 

liim. So, stripping him of all his clothes, and 
tieing him face down across a log, they gathered 
about him while the old scjiiaws marched past, 
each one giving him a good spanking with a 
stick. After he had been punished in this 
manner, and after they knew that the soldiers 
had gone away from the neighborhood, the 
Indians turned Wash loose, still naked as he 
was. He had to walk the two hundred miles 
to the fort. 

In the eighties Wash resigned from the 
army, married an Arapahoe squaw, and has 
raised a family that is an honor to him. He 
has two grandsons who are nice, quiet young 
men. The oldest one, named George, has skin 
as black as his father's, but his hair is as 
straight as any fullblood Indian's. When it 
comes to throwing a rope, playing ball or run- 
ning foot races, there is no one in the tribe 
that can beat him. 

Robinson owns a good farm on the Washita 
river at the mouth of Boggy creek, and also 
conducts a livery stable at Colony, Oklahoma. 
He is the only man of his color who is allowed 
to live in Washita county, which, with a popula- 
tion of Texans, Russians and Germans, goes 
Democratic at each election. No colored people 
are allowed in the county, and, though I have 
been there several times, if there is a Republican 
there I have yet to find him. Some of the 
agency employes are Republicans, of course, 
but outside of these officials thev are mightv scarce. 



CHAPTER XI. 
JAMES L. PUCKETT'S STORY. 

, The author of this book was born in Clay 
county, Indiana, on the 18th day of March, 
1863, and was raised in Indiana and Ilhnois. I 
came west in the fall of 1881, and entered the 
Indian Territory at Cherokee City. Cherokee 
City was a small health resort on the Arkansas 
line in the Cherokee country, eight miles north 
of Siloam Springs. I began work for a cattle- 
man by the name of Sam McFail. This was 
my first instroduction to the Indians and to the 
United States marshals. 

I hadn't been at work for this man but two 
days when he and his family were called to 
Maysville, Ark., by the death of his mother. 
He took his whole family with him and left me 
alone. His was the only white family living in 
that part of the country. I had all kinds of 
wild ideas about the Indians, and the first 
night I staid alone I was lonesome, and imagined 
everything that a boy in my circumstances 
would be likely to imagine. The next morning 
I was feeding cattle when a man rode up and 
wanted to know if Sam had any cattle to sell. 
I told him I didn't know; that I was a stranger 
there. 

In the evening two men came and asked me 
the same questions. While they were talking 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE HQ 

they both got down off their horses and pre- 
tended to be fixing their saddle-blankets. Be- 
fore I suspected anything wrong they both had 
their six-shooters leveled on me and told me I 
was a prisoner. One of them was a United 
States marshal by the name of Andrews. 

I asked them what was the matter, and 
why they wanted me, and they both looked as 
mean as they could and said they wanted me 
for murder. They said I had killed my brother- 
in-law up in Missouri, and that they were going 
.to take me back. I tried to explain, but they 
would listen to nothing I said, so I thought 
they were outlaws and wanted to steal some 
cattle or do some other kind of meanness. 

One of them locked a trace chain about my 
leg and then asked me if I wanted to get any 
of my clothes. I thought then of some letters 
I had that I had received from home, and 
believed that if they were really marshals that 
these letters would be worth something to me 
now, so I got the letters and showed them to 
those fellows. They looked at them and read 
them and after questioning me closely turned me 
loose, and I felt better. 

Afterwards I became well acquainted with 
these men, and Andrews was for a long time 
my best friend. They had been on the track 
of a man who had killed his brother-in-law, 
and as I was a newcomer in the country they 
had just arrested me on suspicion. 



120 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

From that time on I got along very well 
until about the middle of April in '82, when I 
hired to a man by the name of Carr and started 
from Benton county, Arkansas, to Wyoming 
territory with a bunch of cattle. There were 
in the party sixteen of us, including the fore- 
man, and we had about 800 cattle. Except 
the foreman, we were all green hands. We 
came out through Vinita,. crossed the Osage line 
above Bartlesville, passed through the Osage 
country, crossed the Arkansas river, and passed 
out through the strip. We had had but little 
trouble up to this time, but we had gone very 
slowly and the cattle had begun to mend up, 
and got so they would stampede at night. Nearly 
every night there would come a big storm, and 
we would have to work all night. 

In those days what a cowboy got to eat 
was very common, — a piece of tough old bread, 
baked in a skillet, a few pieces of what we 
called "sow bosom," a little grease or gravy, 
and coffee strong enough to bear up an iron 
weight, — that was considered good enough for 
anybody to eat, and if we got that more than 
twice a day we considered ourselves lucky. 

There was a bunch of outlaws living on 
Salt Fork. They would slip in at night and 
steal out a bunch of cattle, then they would 
come around next day and want you to give 
them a dollar a head to bring them liack. A 
cattleman by the name of Mills had told us 
about them, and we were therefore as careful 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 121 

as we could be, but one night they slipped in 
and stole out about a hundred head. Early in 
the morning the boss took ten of the men and 
started out to hunt them down. They came 
soon upon the cabin and dugout. There was a 
pasture with a cliff on one side and a creek 
bank on the other. I was not with the party; 
I had been left at the camp with some of the 
others to take care of the balance of the cattle. 
Some trees had been cut down on each side 
of the bottom to make a sort of brush fence, 
and inside this pasture the cattle were found. 
The foreman undertook to ride through the gap, 
when two men came out and forbade him from 
doing so, claiming that it was their field. They 
told him if he wanted his cattle he must give 
them a dollar a head and they would bring 
them in. After there had been some words 
Carr turned and went around the hollow with 
his men and then over the bluff to where they 
could see the cattle. Then they went down 
another hollow, through the brush fence, and 
took possession of the cattle. Thereupon the 
thieves came upon them and there was a shoot" 
^ing scrape, in which two of the boys were 
wounded. One of them, named Weaver, after- 
wards died from the effects of his wound in the 
fall of 1905. 

I am satisfied that I met one of these same 
thieves at the land office in Tahlequah, Ind. 
Ter. He was a half breed Cherokee, and had 
just returned from the penitentiary. I did not 



122 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

let him know anything about this scrape, but I 
listened to his talk until I was satisfied that he 
was one of the very same men. 

This man Carr got a cattleman by the name 
of Miller and some more cowboys and went back 
and burned up the cabin and destroyed every- 
thing that could be found, and thea stuck up 
notices on the trees warning the thieves what 
they might expect next time. 

We then started on west, carrying the 
wounded boys in the wagon. One of them 
soon got well, but the other one was placed on 
the stage and sent up into Kansas, where he 
€ould be sent back home. I afterwards heard, 
however, that he died before he reached home. 

I soon got enough of this kind of living. 
I told the foreman that he could get another 
hand in my place, and he picked up a couple 
■of Mexicans. So when we came to the trail 
leading south from Caldwell, Kan., to Fort 
Reno, and met a bunch of freighters, I went to 
Port Reno, where I staid a short time. 

There I fell in love with a Cheyenne girl. 
Her father wanted two ponies for her, so I 
tried to get her to run off with me, but this 
she refused to do. Then I fell in with an 
outfit that had a bunch of ponies going to 
Missouri. This was about the toughest outfit 
that I ever struck. It was about the first of 
August that I landed back in Vinita. We had 
about three hundred head of ponies when we 
left Fort Reno and about four hundred when we 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 123 

reached Vinita. There were but six of us in 
all, and two or three would stay with the herd 
while the others would be out "rustling/' as 
they called it. I was afraid to stay with 
these fellows, and was also afraid to quit them 
until we got to Vinita, where I demanded my 
pay and gave up my job. 

I then staid around Vinita a few days until 
I fell in with some white people from Texas 
who claimed to be Indians looking for a chance 
to make a place. I told them of the hills 
that I had seen southwest of Vinita, and we 
located nine miles southwest of the town on the 
-eth day of August, 1882, on what was after- 
wards known as the Billings cow ranch. 

I didn't stay long with this man, however, 
but went to work at the U bar 2 ranch, which 
was on White Oak between Billings' and Vinita. 
It was owned by Dave Allen, a white man, who 
was at that time married to a Cherokee woman. 
Allen himself lived in Vinita, but he had a 
brother-in-law^ who was exactly my age, and one 
of the best-looking Cherokee boys I ever saw. 
At that time he and I used to stay on the 
ranch together. His name was Cude Gilhs, and 
his present address is Catoosa, Ind. Ter. We 
used to have a pretty good time batching to- 
gether. We would get along very well in the 
day time, but in the night when there would 
■come up big storms we would both be nearly 
scared to death, and, puttiDg a big quilt over 
our heads, would run out to the creek bank and 



124 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

stay there until the storm would blow over^ 
both getting wringing wet before we went back 
into the house. There were many cyclones in 
those days, but the country was thinly settled,. 
and there was never much damage done. 

We hunted more for watermelons than we 
did for cattle. There was no place to go for- 
amusement, except about five miles northwest,, 
where, on the edge of the Shawnee hills, there 
was a stomp ground where the Shawnee and 
Delaware Indians used to go at that season of 
the year and camp and dance for weeks at a 
time. We would go there once in a while and 
see four or five hundred of the old "stick- 
shines" as we called them, dressed in full paint 
and feathers and stomping around and acting- 
the fool. But we became acquainted with some 
of the young folks until we would enjoy our- 
selves very nuich. 

Sometimes we would have to gather cattle 
and get them in shape to ship. Then we 
would have to work very hard for a few days. 
Afterwards, though, we would have a good time 
again. Allen would come out on Sundays and 
tell us good stories and would sing and pick an 
old banjo that we had about the place. I 
never thought then that he would ever be the 
cowboy preacher of the Indian Territory. He 
had been raised in Memphis, Tenn., by wealthy 
parents, luit, like many other wealthy families- 
of the south, the Allen family had been broken 
up by the Civil war. Allen was an inspector 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 125 

in the Confederate army in the department of 
Texas and Indian Territory during the rebellion. 
This threw him in contact with the Indians and 
cowboys. He had a good education and could 
adapt himself to every condition. He had a 
peculiar wa}' about him of being able to compel 
the respect of even the toughest men by simply 
using kind words. 

Vinita at that time was a very small place, 
with probably five or six hundred inhabitants. 
The population was composed of cowboys and 
gamblers from everywhere, and of Shawnee, 
Delaware and Cherokee Indians. There was 
not a brick building in town. There were prob- 
ably half a dozen stores, two blacksmith shops, 
several gambling houses, and a Methodist church. 

Winter came, and, growing tired of the 
cold, windy prairies,. I decided to go back to the 
Spavinaw hills. About the middle of November 
I settled up, and, catching a wagon in Vinita 
that had come in from Arkansas with apples, I 
soon found myself back among the flint hills. I 
put up with a man that everybody called "Uncle 
JefT" Beck. He was a good old man and had 
quite a fortune. He had lived for 47 years 
in one door-yard. His place was on the road 
from Maysville to Tahlequah, and just outside 
of his door-yard was a grave-yard where some 
thirty odd men lay who had died with their 
boots on. They were buried there as many as 
eight at a time. 



126 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

"Uncle Jeff" had a son about the same age 
as I, and we used to take in all the dances 
and other gatherings. One night we went to 
a dance at the house of a white man who had 
married an Indian woman. I was soon talking 
with the 'owner of the house, trying to get his 
idea of civilization. He said there was no 
harm in a good dance, and that he always had 
a good one. Noticing that the lamp was sitting 
on a high shelf I mentioned the fact. He said 
he alwa^'s set it up high that way so that if 
any of the boys happened to want to take a 
shot at it none of the ladies would be hurt. 
I had not been there long when Henry 
came, called me to one side, and said he wanted 
me to chip in a cjuarter to buy a white mule. 
On inciuiry I found that a white mule was 
collocjuial for a pint of white whisky, and that 
the whisky-peddler was called a mule man. 
They all wore big six-shooters, which they called 
their killing-machines. There are but two tunes 
that the fiddlers ever play in the country; one 
of them is Indian Glory, or Black Jack Grove, 
The words to it are as follows: 
"I am goin' to see the widder, 

And black my boots and git 'er; 
I can git 'er, yah, ho! 

I have killed another nigger, 

I first took sight, then pulled the trigger. 
Yah, ho, done come a nigger." 
The words to the other are: 

"Saddle old Spike, I tell you, 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 127 

Spike, he be a race horse, 
Saddle old Spike and give me my gun, 
The marshals is a-coming, and I've got to rmi, 
I tell you." 
These are the only two tunes that were 
recognized as being up-to-date in the coimtry. 
The fiddler would generally sit in the corner 
on a wooden stool with his face turned to the 
wall, while a girl or a boy Avould usually sit 
on a back log and with two small sticks or 
knitting needles play second by beating on the 
strings just above the left hand of the fiddler. 
This made good enough music for a king. 
On the occasion of which I am telling, it 
wasn't long till Henry wanted another quarter 
for another white mule. I told him that we 
might get in trouble; that we had better not 
drink so much. Just then a bunch of long- 
haired Indians got around me, stuck their 
killing-machines up in my face, showed me that 
they were loaded plumb to the muzzle, and 
told me not to be a bit scared; that they would 
stay with me no matter what happened. After 
this experience I cheerfully gave up another 
quarter. I then tried to slip off, but every 
time I got out-doors the}^ gathered around me 
and told me hpw they loved me, how they 
would fight for me, — and then how much they 
wanted another quarter. Then they would «1I 
take another drink. 

At first we had good order, but towards 
the last thev danced with their hats on, turned 



128 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

their belts around so that their six-shooters were 
in front, tucked their pants inside their boots, 
and those who had taken off their spurs put 
them back on. Our fiddler was a long-haired 
Indian called Apple Jack. Occasionally one of 
the boys , would call Apple Jack out of the house 
and give him a drink, and then the fiddle would 
take on new life, and then, with heels popping, 
spurs jingling and skirts crackling, they would 
loose themselves to the fancy of the mad music 
of Apple Jack. 

All at once there came in a long, lean 
Arkansaw-looking fellow, — the mule man. He 
had sold all his white mules, and after searching 
all about until he was satisfied there were no 
marshals there he came ' in the house and began 
to take part in the dance. He asked Pennison 
to call one set in Arkansaw style, and asked 
me to take part with him. I selected a little 
Cherokee girl, Rosie Wolf. He said that when 
he said to swing your partners, to swing them 
by the waist. Then it w^as swing your partners, 
change partners and swing, and then swing your 
partners. In the change I ran against a big 
fat old Indian girl, threw my arm around her 
waist and tried to swing her, but she was too 
heavy for me. Then I took both hands and 
managed to swing her aroimd, then crippled 
back to my partner. Just then he howled, 
"We are all done now. You can all go home 
and kill old Towser if he goes bow-wow." 
Bang, went the guns, and out went the lights, 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE 131 

Indians yelling, guns popping. I almost ruined 
my shins rvmning over the wood-pile, but I got 
to my horse and went down that hill with the 
bridle-rein in one hand and my hat in the other, 
and didn't draw a good breath until 1 got home. 
Henry didn't come in until almost dayhght. 
He said they had a good time after I left. 
An Indian by the name of Little Father was 
killed and two or three others had their heads 
pretty badly beaten up. 

This was about the roughest dance I went 
to, but the old man always claimed that there 
was no harm in a good dance. I was very 
glad to see the red buds in bloom once more, 
and to know that the grass was getting green 
again, as I had rather be on the range in front 
of a herd of stampeded cattle and hear the 
roar of their feet and see the lightning playing 
on their horns, and know that if my pony fell 
with me I would be run over, than to be at one 
of those dances in which there is no harm. 

About the middle of April I put in ap- 
pearance in Vinita, where I met Dave Allen, 
my old boss. He was glad to see me, and 
said that I had come just in time. He was 
going to start in a few days to meet a big 
herd of cattle coming up from Texas, which he 
expected to meet in the Seminole coimtry. . So 
we made ready and were off in a few days. 
The first night we stopped near Claremore, on 
the Verdigris river. One of the boys had lived 
in this neighborhood before, and he told me' of 



132 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

a widow woman down on the river who had 
two grown daughters, so we sHpped off after 
supper and went down there. At that time 
the Creeks were having a httle civil war. Spy 
Eachey and Schoatey were at war over the 
chieftaincy. Spy Eachy had all the Indians, 
while Schoatey had all the negroes and mixed 
bloods, and they were having some pretty hot 
times. The only talk you heard anywhere was 
about this Creek war. 

A sixteenth Creek negro named Dick Glass 
was a terror to the country. He had just made 
a raid through that country, and came very 
near stirring up a war between the Cherokees 
and Creeks. It was reported that he had been seen 
in that neighborhood with a bunch of Creek 
negroes, and when we got to the widow woman's 
house where the girls were, the first thing they 
told us was a big, scary story about Dick 
Glass. But we had our killing machines with 
us, and we assured the girls that they were 
not in the least danger as long as we were 
there. We told them that we did not ask for 
any better luck than to kill a bunch of Creek 
niggers. We believed it, too, and the girls 
looked as if they also believed it. So, after 
we had talked until we grew tired, and after 
the old lady had told us it was bed-time, my 
partner and I lay down to sleep on the porch. 
It was a hewed log house with a porch facing 
east. The moon was just rising. We piled 
up some benches and a box or two on the edge 



AND HOMESEEKER's GUIDE 133 

of the porch and then lay down to sleep. 
These folks had a pet deer that had a habit 
of going into the woods with the wild deer and 
staying for a week at a time, and then, when 
he came in, he generally had a fight with the 
dogs. They had about half a dozen dogs that 
staid around in the yard. 

All of a sudden we were wakened from sleep 
by the noise of the dogs barking, and there 
they were, coming right for the porch. And 
down went our pile of boxes and benches, and 
something jumped right over them and ran 
into the house, and every dog doing his best 
in the way of howling. We jumped up, and 
I thought the whole place was full of Creek 
niggers. So around the house we went, pell- 
mell. The smoke house door was standing 
open, and my partner bolted into it, while I 
ran around behind. I thought I could hear 
horses running, and was afraid to go any 
farther, but I soon discovered that the sound I 
had heard was my heart, not horses' hoofs. 

I was just in the act of throwing up my 
hands and howling for mercy when the good 
woman came and called us and said it was 
nothing, only Billy, the pet deer, that had come 
in. We went back, but we didn't go to sleep. 
We left next morning before it was daylight, 
and we never went back there again. 

We got back to where Allen and his men 
were and started on our way. We were soon 
in the Creek nation, and crossed the Arkansas 



134 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

river at Wealaka Mission. From there we 
headed towards Wewoka, never seeing any sign 
of a war party until we had gone 75 miles. 
Then, across a little river, we began to meet 
bmiches of armed men. Everybody we met 
warned uB to be on the lookout. We boys 
were scared and wanted to stop, Taut Allen al- 
ways told us some story of how he had out- 
maneuvered big parties of wild Indians, and so 
reassured us. Sometimes he would tell such a 
fearful tale that the hair would stand up on 
our heads. 

One day we came to a little country store, 
and were told that a hard battle had been 
fought just ahead of us. But Allen was in a 
hurry to get on and meet his cattle, so we 
kept on. We had gone but a short distance 
when we met a party of Indians. They rode 
up close, then stopped, and one of their men 
rode forward. Allen went to meet him. 

"Who are you?" asked the Indian, in a 
friendly manner. 

"Cowboys," was the answer. 

"Where are you from?" 

"From the Cherokee country," replied Allen. 

"What are you doing here?" asked the 
Indian. 

"We are going to Wewoka to meet a bunch 
of cattle." 

Then the Indian motioned to the balance 
of his men and they all came up. They told 
us that they were Spy Eachy's men. and that 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE. 135 

Schoatey's men were on ahead of us. They 
sent one man with us until we had passed the 
hne. We saw lots of Indians, but we never 
did get to see the main body. After we had 
gone to the outside lines this man that was 
with us turned back, and we asked him how 
far it was to where we could stay all night. 
He told us that there was a cow ranch not far 
ahead, but never a cow ranch did we see. 

Finally we came to a creek, and as we 
were afraid to travel on the road in the dark 
we went off the road and traveled down the 
creek a ways. We listened a long time, and 
could hear nothing save the soft breeze that 
stirred the tops of the trees. We rode cau- 
tiously for a short distance further, then stopped, 
and decided to make the best of it for the 
night. For a while we sat -quietly, holding 
the horses while they ate. Then we decided 
to make a little fire down in the creek bottom, 
having in a measure forgotten the danger we 
were in. We had tied some of our horses out, 
and hobbled the others, had unpacked our camp 
outfit and we preparing to get a bite of some- 
thing to eat. 

Dave had a little bunch of wood in his 
hands and I had just started a fire. I saw 
Dave drop the wood and whirl around, jumping 
behind a big tree. I started to run. The 
other boys were out with the horses. Just 
then a small body of men dashed up on horse- 
back. We were all hidden. Thev could see 



136 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

no one, for I had scattered the fire. Then one 
man said, in a loud voice, 

"Throw up your hands!" 

"Don't shoot then," said Dave. 

"Who are you and where are you going?"' 
asked tlie man, riding up to the bank and 
trying to see Dave. 

"We are cowboys, going to Wewoka," answer- 
ed Dave. 

"Well, this is no place for you tonight. 
Come and go with me," commanded the un- 
known man. 

"Who are you?" asked Allen. 

"Lieutenant Mcintosh." 

"Is that you, Charley?" asked Dave, eagerly. 

"Yes, this is Charley Mcintosh. What's 
your name?" 

"Dave Allen," he said, as he stepped out 
from behind the tree. 

"Well, come and go with me," said the 
lieutenant. So Allen called us all in and we 
had a big laugh and got our horses together. 
Allen and Mcintosh were old friends. We found 
that we had camped in about a quarter of a 
mile of Schoatey's line. We had followed down 
the creek almost to the big road from Okmulgee 
to Wewoka, and had camped within a hundred 
yards of it without knowing it. The soldiers 
took us to Schoatey's headc|uarters. After 
Mcintosh had explained who we were the chief 
asked, in a rough voice. 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE. 137 

"Well, what do you want here?" 

"The first thing we want is our suppers," 
answered Dave. 

"Well" said Schoatey, "you must stay 
around my camp and don't go away from my 
tent tonight. Have as little to say as you can 
to these people, and I will see you again in 
the morning." 

He and his officers slept in a tent apart, 
while we slept in a cook tent. There was little 
attention paid to us until the next morning, 
when I saw more negroes at one time that I 
have ever seen before or since. Some had 
shot-guns, some had muskets, and some had 
Winchesters. 

They sent men to guard us until we had 
passed their lines. The guards told us many 
things about the battle that had been fought. 
A few days before our visit, they said, one 
bunch of their men had Spy Eachy cut off 
from his army, and had shot his horse from 
under him. They had shot at him over a 
hundred times, never hitting him. A few of 
his men saw his perilous condition, dashed back 
and picked him up. They said Spy Eachy had 
a needle gun, and every time it smoked a man 
fell. 

We rode across the battle field and saw 
some dead horses, but the men had all been 
buried. We went on our way without further 
trouble, and met the cattle about ten miles 
south of Wewoka. We turned back, goirg over 



138 HISTORY Of OKLAHOMA 

much the same ground we had just traveled. 
The soldiers, [^however, had got in with the Creeks 
and stopped the war. The government counted 
the votes and Schoatey was declared chief. Spy 
Eachy was not elected chief for several years 
afterwards, though he finally gained the coveted 
honor. 

We went along without further trouble. 
Sometimes the cattle would stampede at night 
and then we woidd have a little excitement for 
a while. We soon shaped our course more to 
the north. We came to the Arkansas river 
close to Tulsa. The river was swimming-deep, 
and where it wasn't swimming there was quick- 
sand. We camped all night on the west side. 
Early in the morning we started the cattle 
across. It was a very foolish thing for a 
cattleman to do, as the sun was shining full 
in the faces of the cattle, glistening on the 
water until it blinded their eyes. The cattle 
began bellowing, and floated down stream. We 
swam in on our horses and tried to turn them, 
but the cattle began going round and round. 
We swam around with them, and tried to drag 
them out one at a time, but when we would 
get one out and turn it loose it would plunge 
back into the river again. They were climbing 
on top of one another and bellowing until our 
ears were almost split with the noise. 

It looked as if they would all drown. Our 
horses had given out, and it looked like foolish- 
ness to trv to do anvthing more. Just below 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE. 139 

the place where we had tried to ford the river 
made a short bend, and just below it a sand- 
bar ran out. The cattle were washed upon 
the bar, and we finally got them started out. 
This bar was all that saved the cattle; if it 
had not been there the whole herd would have 
been lost. 

From Tulsa we came up along the Frisco 
railroad, that had just been extended to Sapulpa 
from Vinita the year before. The towns of 
Tulsa and Claremore and Chelsea were just being 
started. We reached Vinita about the last of 
June. 

That fall another bvmch of cattle, 800 head, 
^were brought up. These had the X brand on 
them and belonged to old man Wills. They 
were all put in with the cattle belonging to the 
Kimberly Cattle company, and directly after 
they arrived Grayson Wills, the old man's son, 
•came up. This was the first time I ever saw 
him. He was a great big stout fellow, full 
■of fun, who added new life to the camp. 

Everything went along peaceably until late 
in the fall, when I took a notion to get married. 
On the 8th day of December, 1883, I was mar- 
ried to Mrs. Area A. Parks, a widow woman 
with two small girls. She was a half breed 
Cherokee, had a good farm, and had been 
educated in the female seminary in Tahlequah. 
I gave up my job as cowboy, and as game was 
abundant in the hills that winter I put in my 
•time hunting and getting used to married life. 



140 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

Shortly after we had been married my wife 
took a notion that she wanted to see her brother^ 
a half-breed Cherokee with gray eyes and sandy 
hair who tried his best to be a fullblood. He 
even tried to wear his hair long, but there was 
too much of the Irish in him, and the hair 
would not stay straight, but would curl up over 
his hat, so that when he was wearing a hat 
all you could see of it was the top. His hair 
was as long as a man's arm when it was wet 
and straightened out, but when it was dry it 
curled up, making his head look as big as a 
half bushel. His wife was an Osage woman,, 
weighing about 200 pounds. She was a very 
pleasant woman, — when she was asleep or in 
good humor. This, however, didn't happen 
very often. 

My wife told me the best she could about 
them before we started on our visit. She said 
she didn't like his wife, but that he was the 
only brother she had, and she couldn't help 
wanting to go to see him now and then. His 
name was John and his wife's was Ellen. John 
believed in witches. Among the Indians he was 
regarded as a witch-killer. He believed that 
every now and then the devil would come and 
take up his abode in his wife. He never 
found fault with her, but went to work to cast 
the devil out. When his efforts were unsuccess- 
ful he would go up into the hills where an old 
Indian lived that never failed. 

When we reached John's house Ellen was 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE. 141 

having one of those spells. She had taken a 
butcher knife and run John off the place. John, 
having done all he could to get back on the 
place, and having met with failure, had gore 
for help. This time the old witch-killer told 
him to go home and get on his old sorrel horse 
that he had ridden in the Civil war, — an old 
horse about thirty years old that he had ridden 
when he went courting Ellen. He had kept 
the horse for old times' sake. 

The performance was about as follows: 
They lived in a house on the south side of a 
branch and the stables and barn were on the 
north side. The house was a small log cabin 
with a rail fence in front about knee high. 
Behind the house on the south and north sides 
was a small garden, where the cockle-burrs were 
as high as a man's head when riding horseback. 
John slipped up, got the old horse and saddled 
him. Everybody carried a six-shooter in those 
days, and John was no exception. He put 
spurs to the old horse, and before any of us 
knew it he was coming at full speed. He 
jumped the fence, jerked out his six-shooter, 
bang, bang, and around the house he went into 
the cockle-burr patch. When he had reached 
the middle of it the old horse fell down. Ellen 
thought he had got drvmk or had gone crazy, 
and before she discovered what was the matter 
her long black hair became full of cockle-burrs, 
and John's hair was well-filled too. Ellen fell 
over and began crying, and John ran to claim 



142 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

her for his own sweet angel. About that time^. 
however, she got hold of a club and made for 
John, and John couldn't get away, so they 
clinched, and down they went in a pile. Area 
and I ran to separate them. We carried Ellen 
into the house and talked to her, and promised 
to puir the cockle-burrs out of her hair next 
morning. The next day was Christmas, and 
while they were getting breakfast there was a 
cjuart can full of sorghum molasses sitting on 
the table. John was sitting on the wood box: 
holding the baby, when all at once Ellen grabbed 
up the molasses can and upset it on his head,, 
at the same time giving him a shampoo. In 
the scuffle they overturned the stove. Area 
and I interfered ^ again and made peace,- 
but Ellen went out of doors and cussed until 
it clouded up and began to snow. Area and I 
got afraid that the creek would rise and prevent 
us from reaching home, so we started at once.. 

The last time I saw John was in Tahlequah 
more than twenty years afterwards. I think 
he had some of those same cockle-burrs in his 
hair. 

This was one of the worst winters I ever 
saw. The cattle all came near dying, so near 
that next spring out of about sixteen hundred 
head of cattle Allen rounded up only about two 
hundred and fifty, which he sold to Grayson 
Wills, and with which the latter started a ranch 
near White Oak switch, where he now lives, and 
where he has made a fortune. 



AND HOMKSEEKERS' GUIDE. 143 

. Allen moved to Vinita and in the following 
summer was converted to God and became a 
Presbyterian preacher, continuing in the ministry 
the rest of his valuable life. He was the 
means of turning many souls to God. He was 
among the best preachers in the Indian Territory 
and was probably the widest-known. He was 
always found where he could do the most good, 
and was loved by all who knew him. 

Among his last noted sermons was the 
memorial sermon for Caroline Houston. The 
story goes that Sam Houston, the hero of Texas, 
came to Fort Smith, Ark., in an earh- day and 
became acquainted with the family of John 
Rogers, who was a slave-holder, and owned a 
big farm in the Arkansas river bottom just above 
Fort Smith. Houston fell in love, so the story 
goes, with Caroline Rogers' daughter, who was a 
college graduate. They were married, but she 
lived only a short time. After her death he 
erected a monument over her grave and then, 
in a few days, disappeared. He was next 
heard of in Texas. 

In 1904 the government took up Caroline 
Houston's remains, and the body was reinterred 
in the United States cemetery at Fort Gibson, 
Ind. Ter. None of the preachers knew to 
which church she had belonged, or indeed whether 
she had ever been baptized. All were slow to 
volunteer to conduct, the services, so Allen was 
called upon and asked to conduct the service. 
He consented at once. When the appointed 



144 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

day came, there was a large crowd in attendance 
at the grave, where the service was held. All 
the other preachers were there, waiting to see 
how Allen would come out. When the time 
had come he stepped forward, and, after a few- 
introductory remarks, said: 

"Gentlemen and ladies, brothers and sisters, 
before us we have the remains of Caroline 
Houston, who was once the daughter of John 
Rogers. From this family have descended some 
of our most noted statesmen and faithful Chris- 
tians. We know nothing personally about this 
woman, but that she must have been raised by 
one of the best familes of Cherokee people, and 
if she commanded the love and respect of the 
great Sam Houston she must have been a very 
beautiful woman, as only the beautiful attract 
the attention of great men. 

"Then, if she commanded that love and 
respect, she must have been a good woman, as 
only a good woman maintains the love and 
respect of a great man. Then, as she was 
raised by the noble John Rogers, we believe 
that the right principles were instilled into her 
mind at the right time. Then why should we 
hesitate to ask God to bless her, who gave his 
Son to redeem the world?" 

From this point he went on and preached 
one of the best funeral services ever preached 
in that part of the country, and when he had 
finished all the preachers who had remained to 
hear him came up and gave him their hands. 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE. 145 

Allen was married in Fort Gibson to Miss 
Mary Price, a Cherokee woman, in 1870, and 
he died there in 1905. May peace be to his 
weary ashes ! 

I generally had a good garden, and used 
to sell vegetables to the adjoining ranches. One 
day I took over a sackful of onions and Irish 
potatoes to a neighbor. He said he wouldn't 
buy onions or Irish potatoes either unless they 
were carried in separate sacks. I asked him 
why, and he said the onions would get in the 
potatoes' eyes. After that I was more careful. 

Both men on one of these ranches had their 
families in Vinita, and one summer they hired a 
rather silly woman named Martha to do their 
cooking. Martha had a little girl named Louisa. 
Martha wanted to get married. One of the 
partners, a cranky old man, was a widower, but 
he had a nice family in town. Bud and I, 
therefore, told ^lartha that if she would clean \\p 
Louisa and keep the place clean she could win 
the' old cow-man's heart. After that we had 
no trouble with dirt. 

There was an old white woman in the 
neighborhood who lived with a negro and claimed 
to be a fortune teller. She came dowm often 
and told Martha's fortvme. She always told 
Martha that she was going to be married, and 
so every time she left she carried away coffee, 
flour, meat and other eatables. Bud and I 
soon found this out. We didn't want to lell 
our employers, but wo felt it was our duty 
10 



146 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

to stop the traffic. We knew poor Martha 

wanted to get married badly enough to the cow 
man, but we knew it was impossible. 

We had no love for the old woman, but we 
di^ln't want to hurt her, for she was a woman. 
However, something had to be done. We had 
tackled all kinds of propositions and we never 
had failed, and we didn't propose to fail at this. 
One Sunday, therefore, we went over to the 
ranch, early, as usual, and found the fortune 
teller there. We staid around and she staid 
around. She staid until after dinner time, and 
we soon decided that we would have no dinner 
unless something was done. We considered this 
an insult, for we hardly ever missed a good 
dinner on Sunday at this place. So we went 
out back behind the barn, where we found an 
old setting hen that had set too long to hatch, 
we thought. We decided it was a bad wind 
that blew no good. If those eggs wouldn't 
hatch they might be put to a better use. The 
old fortune teller had an old bay horse that she 
worked to a one-horse cart. When she started 
out through the hills even the birds in the 
trees would forget to warble their songs and 
would peep out in wide-eyed wonder at this 
creaking vehicle. We took out the eggs and 
raised up the quilt that she had doubled up 
for a cushion for the seat. We deposited the 
eggs carefully in the center of the seat, and then 
as carefully replaced the ciuilt. Then we went 
back and hid, waiting for the old lady to leave' 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE. 147 

After they were satisfied that there was 
no one around,— Bud and 1 had pretended to go 
home,— they performed the fortune-telhng act. 
Then they came out to the cart with a httle 
coffee, sugar, flour and meat, put it in the cart, 
and unhitched the old bay horse. Then the 
fortune teller got in and took her seat. Im- 
mediately she got up again, and looked all 
around as if she thought the cart was breaking. 
Then she sat down again, hit the old horse 
and started to leave. Soon she stopped the 
horse and got up again, finally discovering what 
was the matter. Immediately she began cussing, 
and kept it up until the atmosphere had turned 
blue for two miles around. Bud and I, there- 
fore, began to fear that it would rain and 
hurried home. The old woman was never seen 
about the ranch again. 

At about that time I was summoned to sit 
on a jury at the Dog Creek court house. We 
were trying a negro for stealing a horse. The 
district attorney had introduced testimony show- 
ing clearly that the negro had stolen the horse. 
Then came the time for the defendant's testi- 
mony. His lawyer arose and claimed that the 
negro was a citizen of the United States and 
not an Indian, and that the court therefore had 
no jurisdiction over him. The old judge got 
up, pounded the bench with both fists, and swore by 
the eternal he had jurisdiction over one side of the 
case and, likewise by the eternal, he was going 
to jurisdict the other side also. ''Come on 



148 HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA 

with your witnesses, gentlemen/' he said. 

But that was just the trouble; the defense 
had no witnesses. The case was submitted 
to the jury, and the jury without leaving the 
room found the negro guilty of stealing a horse. 
The judge rose to his feet and asked the negro 
if he had anything to say. 

'T have nothing to say/' replied the culprit, 
"only to ask that you have mercy on me." 

'T will have mercy on your soul/' said the 
judge, "but not much on your hide. It is the 
judgment of this court that the sheriff of this 
district will cause fifty lashes to be struck on 
the bare back of this prisoner with good hickory 
witches. This is the smallest penalty provided 
by law for horse-stealing." 

There was some rustling about in the room, 
and then the prisoner's lawyer got up and made 
application for a new trial. He claimed that 
he had been taken by surprise and had not had 
time to prepare his case. Just then he heard 
somebody scream, and looking out into the yard 
saw the negro strvmg up and the sheriff applying 
the hickory withes. 

The lawyer sat down. "Go ahead," said 
the judge; "let us hear Avhat you have to say 
about it." Before anything could be done, how- 
ever, the negro's punishment had been com- 
pleted. 

I will not burden you further with my ex- 
periences, but will give you the experiences of 
several others, which wil^be more interesting to 



AND HOMESEEKERS' GUIDE. 149 

you. I made mention of these facts merely in 
order to show you how we spent the early days 
in Indian Territory and Oklahoma. 

Before closing I wish to say that in 1889 1 
was overtaken by misfortune, losing my wife. 
I" again married in 1890, my second wife also 
being a Cherokee. She died in 1891. On the 
10th day of May, 1893, I was again married, 
this time to Miss Peachy Ellen Fagon, another 
Cherokee woman, who is still living. She has 
been in bad health for several j^ears, and we have 
put in most of the time traveling about over 
Indian Territory and Oklahoma, in the hope that 
she might regain her health. Probably by this 
time I know more people and more of the coun- 
try than any other one man in the twin terri- 
tories. Believing that this knowledge will be 
worth something to people seeking homes in the 
new country, I have decided to put my mem- 
ories into a book. 

When I speak of any part of this country 
it is not hearsay; it is what I actually know 
from my own experience. I own a good farm 
twelve miles southwest of Vinita, with over 300 
acres in it, and we invite you all to stop and 
see us. 

J.^MES L. PUCKETT, 

Vinita, Ind. Ter. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 
The Author 3 

Quanah Parker =. -- 19 

Cheyenne and Arapaho Women 43^ 

John Segar 55^ 

Two Braids 71 

Geronimo — 106 

Wash Robinson... 112 

Indian Village .,. - 130 



INDEX. 

Page 

Chapter I. Some Early Cherokee History .. 7 

" II. Creeks and Seminoles 14 

III. Quana Parker 21 

" IV. ReUgion and Traditions of the 

Cheyennes .- -.. 45 

V. John Segar 57 

VI. The Homeseekers' Guide 65 

VII. The Life of Ora A. Woodman .... 73 

VIII. The Battle of The Washita or 

Red Moon. 96 

IX. History of The Wichita 

Mountain 107 

X. Wash Robinson... 113 

XI. James L. Puckett's Storv- .118 



FEB 7 1907 




GOOD BEAR IN WIXTER QUARTERS 



^ 



